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from the issue of August 31, 2006
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American Life in Poetry
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
Of taking long walks it has been said that a person can walk off anything. Here David Mason hikes a mountain in his home state, Colorado, and steps away from an undisclosed personal loss into another state, one of healing.
In the Mushroom Summer
Colorado turns Kyoto in a shower,
mist in the pines so thick the
crows delight
(or seem to), winging in obscurity.
The ineffectual panic of a squirrel
who chattered at my passing gave
me pause
to watch his Ponderosa come and go -
long needles scratching cloud.
I'd summited
but knew it only by the wildflower
meadow,
the muted harebells, paintbrush,
gentian,
scattered among the locoweed
and sage.
Today my grief abated like water
soaking
underground, its scar a little path
of twigs and needles winding
ahead of me
downhill to the next bend. Today I let
the rain soak through my shirt
and was unharmed.
Reprinted by permission from "The Hudson Review," Vol. LIX, No. 2 (Summer 2006). Copyright 2006 by David Mason. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the UNL Department of English. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
GO TO: ISSUE OF AUGUST 31
ARTS HEADLINES FOR AUGUST 31
Staff Art Exhibition to be featured in Nebraska Union
American Life in Poetry
Barger birthday recital is Sept. 12
Guantanamo detainees, friends, punk rockers featured at the Ross
Printmaker to lecture Aug. 31
732554S36089X
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