And the Dark Wheels Again
Text on A3 aquarelle paper
and the dark wheels again
winding round
a line drawn straight up
a line of beauty
up into the heights
and on those winding circles
(wide wings outstretched
no beat or flutter
nothing tangible
to rest his tail against)
up goes the hawk
round and round
Collaged from ‘Birds Climbing the Air’ by Richard Jefferies, found in ‘The Life of the Fields’, 1899.
A key feature of Jefferies’ writing is its particularity – its detailed observations of natural phenomena. ‘Birds Climbing the Air’ describes a pair of buzzards circling on air thermals. These birds are a prominent species here in the valley, eviscerating sheep corpses and thereby opening them up for other scavengers.