A Love for Violence- "The Hawk"

“The Hawk” was written by Marianne Boruch and published in her collection of poetry entitled Poems: New and Selected in 2004. I love this poem because it is violent, and doesn’t make excuses for it’s content. This feature in itself might leave some readers offended. In today’s society, where everyone and everything is politically correct, I appreciate a little danger. I applaud Boruch because she took a risk; she wrote a poem that someone might hate. 

The poem begins when the speaker comes home to a hawk tearing apart a grackle in their yard. The imagery is very striking, “blood, the black feathers scattered / on snow. ” These words paint a vivid picture of the scene that the speaker has come upon. She has also chosen to describe the remains of the grackle as “a skein of flesh” this word choice leaves the reader with an image of sinewy flesh, which might be enough to make someone vomit.

The next section of the poem emphasizes the lack of noise in the yard, the speaker is left wanting for the usual chatter of birds.

            The fierceness of it, the nonchalance.

            Silence took the yard, so usually

            restless with every call or quarrel,

            titmouse, chickadee, drab

            and gorgeous finch, and the sparrow haunted

This plays up the effect that the scene has had on the surrounding wildlife. The speaker is not in fear, yet the sparrow is justified in her alarm. The speaker states, “I didn’t know /

how to look at it.” It’s within this phrase I feel the point of the poem is driven home. Humans typically try to outline right and wrong wherever we can. This shows the scene for what it is. The animals here are not turned into darlings, they are simply doing what comes naturally. We cannot interfere with the natural order of things. We are made to respect the hawk, and empathies with the grackle. We see that all along, it was the sparrow that knew the danger.