Windhover is a British term for our Kestrel that reaches us
through a sonnet written by Gerard Manley Hopkins in 1887. That name weaves
together various ways of experiencing the bird: with childlike wonder,
scientific awe, spiritual loftiness, and mastery of the hunt. The Kestrel is
our smallest falcon. You might notice it perched on a wire, zooming through the
air, or hovering on the wind while surveying open ground for prey.
Gerard Manley Hopkins was an aspiring Jesuit. He opened his tribute
"To a Windhover" with a rush of worldly and other-worldly images.
I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's
dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and
striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing....
 |
A Kestrel, or
Windhover |
This male Kestrel perched high on a branch above Halibut
Point is patterned as though borrowing freely from a pallet of exotic pheasant
plumage.
Its nature is not at all that of a pheasant as we see when Hopkins'
verse follows the falcon into flight:
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps
smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind.
My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the
thing!
The Kestrel's mission is existential, not recreational. In
its being it fuses the qualities of the wild. Although only the size of a dove
it is a bird of prey.
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume,
here
Buckle! AND the fire
that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
 |
Kestrel chasing a
Flicker |
The poem conveys a Samurai's reverence for the vivid flash.
Life crystallizes in the transcendent, the momentary, the momentous.
No wonder of it: shéer
plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves,
and gash gold-vermillion.
The ability to hover is a rare achievement among animals as
large as Kestrels. They manage it sometimes with strong rapid wingbeats and
sometimes, with perfect aerial balance, by harnessing invisible forces in the sky.
Soaring birds typically spiral in great circles by riding
the rising air currents of thermals. Kestrels can stay fixed briefly over one
location by heading directly into the wind. They might appear to be motionless
but are finessing elemental energies by intricate positioning of the feathers
on their wings and tail, while keeping their heads perfectly stationary to
increase hunting efficiency. They defy gravity until they turn it to their
advantage in a purposeful swoop.
With just such inspirations Ina and Herb Hahn founded a
performing and creative arts camp for girls adjacent to Halibut Point in June
of 1968. Ina wrote, "We decided to name the place after one of our
favorite poems, "To a Windhover," written by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
The "windhover" in Hopkins' poem is a kestrel, a small falcon much
like our seagull, notable for hovering
in the air with its head against the wind. Its flight is described in the poem
as symbolic of the soaring of man's imagination and the spiritual quest that
informs great art."
The dream has been expanded under the leadership of their
daughter Lisa Hahn. Dancers continue taking stage at Windhover to reach for
their fullest choreography of stories and themes in movement, often accompanied
by music.
Lisa says, "Windhover Performing Art
Center is more than just dance now. It’s theater, music, dance, poetry and
spiritual retreats. And it’s a welcoming community space where folks can gather
before shows for picnics. This weekend is a rare treat on Fri and Sat evening
when famed choreographer and dancer Margie Gillis & Company from Montreal
performs under the tent at 7:00pm rain or shine. Come witness the best of
modern dance this weekend and experience the soaring and awe of the poet in the
Windhover poem as he describes his feelings. It’s about 'the majesty of the
thing!'"
