Vulture
Robinson Jeffers
I had walked since dawn and lay down to rest on a bare hillside
Above the ocean. I saw through half-shut eyelids a vulture wheeling
high up in heaven,
And presently it passed again, but lower and nearer, its orbit
narrowing,
I understood then
That I was under inspection. I lay death-still and heard the flight-
feathers
Whistle above me and make their circle and come nearer.
I could see the naked red head between the great wings
Bear downward staring. I said, ‘My dear bird, we are wasting time
here.
These old bones will still work; they are not for you.’ But how
beautiful
he looked, gliding down
On those great sails; how beautiful he looked, veering away in the
sea-light
over the precipice. I tell you solemnly
That I was sorry to have disappointed him. To be eaten by that beak
and
become part of him, to share those wings and those eyes–
What a sublime end of one’s body, what an enskyment; what a life
after death.
Maverick Mist 
So beautifully written
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Thank you. 🙂
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Welcome
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Nice poem and the last shot seems to fit in so well with the poem. To me it seems as though he knows what I just read and is giving me a rather sly or knowing stare.
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Ha, ha, thanks David. I think I heard that in Tibet that the ground is too frozen to dig so you’re fed to the birds when you die. So maybe he’s sizing up dinner. 🙂
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Thought-provoking!
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Thanks Georgia. 🙂
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We had a possum die in one of our window wells. The flock of vultures that gathered at the corner of the lot didn’t seem all that poetic. 🙂
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Perhaps they thought the possum was playing possum. 🙂
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