Classic and Contemporary Poetry
GEO-BESTIARY: 2, by JAMES HARRISON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: I walked the same circular path today Last Line: From a ship mortally far out in the sea. Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim Subject(s): Change | ||||||||
I walked the same circular path today in the creek bottom three times. The first: a blur, roar of snowmelt in creek, brain jumbling like the rolling of river stones I watched carefully with swim goggles long ago, hearing the stones clack, click, and slow shuffle along the gravel. The second time: the creek is muddy, a Mexican jay follows me at a polite distance, the mind slows to the color of wet, beige grass, a large raindrop hits the bridge of my nose, the remote mountain canyon has a fresh dusting of snow. My head hurts pleasantly. The third time: my life depends on the three million two hundred seventy-seven thousand three hundred and thirty-three pebbles locked into the ground so I don't fall through the thin skin of earth on which there is a large coyote-turd full of Manzanita berries I stepped over twice without noticing it, a piece of ancient chert, a fragment of snakeskin, an owl eye staring from a hole in an Emory oak, the filaments of eternity hanging in the earthly air like the frailest of beacons seen from a ship mortally far out in the sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TWO WOMEN: OR A CCONVERSATION WITH SAHARA NILE by E. ETHELBERT MILLER THE SPACIOUS FIRMAMENT by JOHN ASHBERY WHEN THE WEATHER CHANGES TO WARM, THE BOYS DRIVE SHIRTLESS by MARY JO BANG AN ELEGY FOR THE PAST by MARVIN BELL TODAY'S NOT OPPOSITE DAY by CHARLES BERNSTEIN WHEN I WAS TWENTY-SIX by ROBERT BLY THE CHANGED WOMAN by LOUISE BOGAN SO IT'S TODAY by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR THE IDEA OF BALANCE IS TO BE FOUND IN HERONS AND LOONS by JAMES HARRISON |
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