Presenting The Last Dove’s Flight (2025 Edition)
Chapter 2 of the river Beautiful is coming soon! Stay tuned to theriverBeautiful.com for details!
The Last Dove’s Flight
Jason Christopher Hackwith
“The dove descending breaks the air / with flame of incandescent terror”
The last dove’s flight into the world
Was brutally ended, wings ripped from her back,
Thrown to the ground to spite her children.
As we watched, numb, stricken with grief,
Wringing our weeping hands,
The best of us tried in vain to save her;
The worst of us turned away.
She had just arisen, launched from her nest.
Her abandoned chicks, unable to rear themselves,
Wait patiently for her to return. No more.
And the world, this world that once was free—
Or was it ever?—reels, staggers drunkenly,
Soaked with blood. The blood cries out for her;
And I fear, I fear—oh how I fear
She will not fly again.
The 2025 Edition of The Last Dove’s Flight is an all-new recording that is being released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons license. Remixes are welcome! Use hashtags #riverbeautiful and #thelastdovesflight and we will be proud to feature your work. We can’t wait to see what you come up with! Download: MP3 320 | FLAC Lossless | PDF Score
I came upstairs to find the TV on, my mother standing there with a look on her face I had never seen before. As my foot hit the last step into the living room, the second plane hit the World Trade Center. I was then, and remain, devastated.
In the days that followed, I wrote a piece for solo cello and chamber orchestra in memory of the first responders and service personnel who gave their lives, titled "The Last Dove's Flight." I also wrote a poem with the same title. I present both once again, in memory of those we can never forget.
Two and a half decades later from that life-altering event, I am publishing a collection of my poetry, music, illustrations and typography called the river Beautiful. It is my sincere hope that you will give me the honor of coming along with me on this journey.
Copyright © 2001-2025 by Jason Christopher Hackwith. Released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons license. Attribution is required; no commercial usage, share alike. For inquiries into commercial licensing, please contact us.
