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from the issue of February 15, 2007
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American Life in Poetry
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
A horse's head is big, and the closer you get to it, the bigger it gets. Here is the Idaho poet, Robert Wrigley, offering us a horse's head, up close, and covering a horse's character, too.
Kissing a Horse
Of the two spoiled, barn-sour geldings
we owned that year, it was Red -
skittish and prone to explode
even at fourteen years -who'd let me
hold to my face his own: the
massive labyrinthine
caverns of the nostrils, the broad plain
up the head to the eyes. He'd let
me stroke
his coarse chin whiskers and take
his soft meaty underlip
in my hands, press my man's
carnivorous
kiss to his grass-nipping upper half
of one, just
so that I could smell
the long way his breath had come
from the rain
and the sun, the lungs and the heart,
from a world that meant no harm.
Reprinted from "Earthly Meditations: New and Selected Poems," published in 2006 by Penguin. Copyright (c) Robert Wrigley, 2006, and reprinted by permission of the author. 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 FEBRUARY 15
ARTS HEADLINES FOR FEBRUARY 15
Quilt symposium opens March 1
American Life in Poetry
Ashanti African Roots Band to play Free at 6
Fleming to lead trio Feb. 23 at Club/Carson event
'Give and Take' examines work of teacher, student
Kunc opens two exhibits in March
Producer offers Feb. 22 screening
Rep Theatre to hold auditions Feb. 17-18
Ross features Iraq documentary
'Two Gentlemen of Verona' opens Feb. 22
UNL print sale is Feb. 22-24
Visiting artist lecture Feb. 28
'Willy Wonka' sweetens Lied stage Feb. 16
732722S36764X
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