Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Christine at Abbey of the Arts posted this picture as an invitation to her 20th Poetry Party! For these parties Christine selects an image and suggests a title and invites us to respond with poems, words, reflections, quotes, song lyrics, etc. On Saturday she draws a name at random and sends the winner a beautiful zine.
Christine photographed the image below last summer on Vancouver Island at a Raptor Sanctuary. There is something so powerful about eagles and they are known for strength and vision. What in your life do you feel this kind of clarity about? Or is there something for which you would like a clearer vision?

My response to this magnificent creature:

Knowing nothing about you I visited around the vast world wide web and found out a few facts. Here I learnt that you and your kind were formerly distributed across North America, but you are now limited to breeding in Alaska, Canada, the northern Great Lakes states, Florida, and the Pacific Northwest. You are an amazing construction worker, building large stick nests (sometimes weighing over a ton) that are usually about six feet in diameter and more than six feet tall near the top of the largest trees near a river or lake. You eat fish that you catch yourself, or find dead, or pirate from other birds. Road-killed deer is a special delicacy that puts you at risk of being hit by motor vehicles. On July 9 last year (2007) you were removed from the endangered species list.

And from here I learnt that you have a big family and a long whakapapa. Birds with names like Kite or Hawk are relatives of yours. Your family is found in the fossil record 30-50 million years ago. Members of your family live all over the globe, yet you have no obvious relatives among the other birds; and scientists don’t even agree that all members of your family are closely related to each other. Maybe you have just grown to look alike because you need similar characteristics to survive in similar habitats.

And then I found this brilliant video clip of your distant cousin Kahu

And so I write

Bald Eagle

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

I’d like to know:

How does it feel

to be removed

from the endangered list?

Is it a relief?

Do you rejoice in your resilience,

that you have overcome

the powers of destruction?

Are vulnerable children

easier to protect than endangered ones?

Do you worry less

when you leave them in their treetop mansion

and go fishing for their breakfast?

Does it restore to you

the land that was yours for millennia?

Or make it any easier

to live within the confines

enforced by the invaders

who destroy your way of being?

Bald Eagle

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Congratulations!

You have turned around the forces

gathered against you.

You have found a mate

and continued your line.

You have done well.

Bald Eagle

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Remind us please

that we cannot fully congratulate ourselves

for this minute step

in the right direction.

We cannot ever restore

your true entitlement.

We have gone too far for that.

Please accept our contrition

as we come to realise

that our way of life

has so limited yours.

We rejoice in your presence

above, beyond and beside us

Inspiring us to persist

in the face of all that would overwhelm.

To make a home in the highest places

To find strength for ourselves

To secure a future for our young

To catch and find and even to scavenge

The things that will sustain

To fly high

and see our shadow

rest lightly

on earth below.