Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BEAR, by JAMES HARRISON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Bear died standing up Last Line: To give up again this human shape. Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim Subject(s): Animals; Bears; Death; Dead, The | ||||||||
Bear died standing up, paws on log, howling. Shot right through the heart. The hunter only wanted the head, the hide. I ate her so she wouldn't go to waste, dumped naked in a dump, skinless, looking like ourselves if we had been flayed, red as death. Now there are bear dreams again for the bear-eater: O god, the bears have come down the hill, bears from everywhere on earth, all colors, sizes, filtering out of the woods behind the cabin. A half-mile up I plummeted toward the river to die, pushed there. Then pinions creaked; I flew downstream until I clutched a white pine, the mind stepping back to see half-bird, half-bear, waking in the tree to wet fur and feathers. Hotei and bear sitting side by side, disappear into each other. Who is to say which of us is one? We loaded the thousand-pound logs by hand, the truck swaying. Paused to caress my friend and helper, the bear beside me, eye to eye, breath breathing breath. And now tonight, a big blue November moon. Startled to find myself wandering the edge of a foggy tamarack marsh, scenting the cold wet air, delicious in the moonglow. Scratched against swart hemlock, an itch to give it all up, shuffling empty-bellied toward home, the yellow square of cabin light between trees, the human shape of yellow light, to turn around, to give up again this human shape. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND THE IDEA OF BALANCE IS TO BE FOUND IN HERONS AND LOONS by JAMES HARRISON |
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