Poem – The Bald Eagle (By Gil Hoy)

The Bald Eagle

One must have a mind of America

To regard the sharp beak and black

Eye of the solitary bird of prey;

And have listened a long time to

Behold the silence of the Liberty Bell,

The dusty flag rough in the distant

Glitter of America’s spacious skies;

And not to think of any misery

In the people’s sounds, in the cold

Clamoring cries of alienated men

And women, which is the sound

Of the land—full of the same cries

In the wind that are blowing

Across the same bare place

For the listener, who listens

For the bald eagle, and, nothing

Himself, beholds nothing that is

Not there and the nothing that is.

Author Bio:
Gil Hoy is a Boston trial lawyer and is currently studying poetry at Boston University, through its Evergreen program, where he previously received a BA in Philosophy and Political Science. Hoy received an MA in Government from Georgetown University and a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy started writing poetry two years ago. Since then, his work has appeared in Third Wednesday, The Write Room, The Eclectic Muse, Clark Street Review, The New Verse News, Harbinger Asylum, Soul Fountain, The Story Teller Magazine, Eye on Life Magazine, Stepping Stones Magazine, The Penmen Review, To Hold A Moment Still (Harbinger Asylum’s 2014 Holidays Anthology), The Zodiac Review, Earl of Plaid Literary Journal, The Potomac, Antarctica Journal, The Montucky Review and elsewhere.