A Kite is a Victim

Richard Bawden

A Kite is a Victim

A kite is a victim you are sure of.
You love it because it pulls
gentle enough to call you master,
strong enough to call you fool;
because it lives
like a desperate trained falcon
in the high sweet air,
and you can always haul it down
to tame it in your drawer.

A kite is a fish you have already caught
in a pool where no fish come,
so you play him carefully and long,
and hope he won’t give up,
or the wind die down.

A kite is the last poem you’ve written,
so you give it to the wind,
but you don’t let it go
until someone finds you
something else to do.

A kite is a contract of glory
that must be made with the sun,
so make friends with the field
the river and the wind,
then you pray the whole cold night before,
under the travelling cordless moon,
to make you worthy and lyric and pure. 

      

Leonard Cohen



This poem came to mind while my family was out flying kites this week. There was just enough wind, and I got the kite high enough to relax a little, and thought to myself, "Am I guiding the kite, or is the kite leading me?" Like with walking a dog, the roles seem to alternate. Sometimes we lead, and sometimes we are led. It's interesting. Who is the master, and who is the fool? 

I haven't got to the bottom of this poem yet. It's a fun one. Just recently I've tried switching out the word "kite" with the word "life", and it works, it makes sense. We live in that paradoxical place - we're free, but we're not free. We live as if we can make choices, and we do, but we are limited, very limited, and true  freedom is an illusion. That line, "A kite is a fish you have already caught/In a pool where no fish come." I'll be happily puzzling over for years.