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from the issue of August 18, 2005
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American Life in Poetry
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
In this fascinating poem by the California poet Jane Hirshfield, the speaker discovers that through paying attention to an event she has become part of it, has indeed become inseparable from the event and its implications. This is more than an act of empathy.
It speaks, in my reading, to the perception of order into which all creatures and events are fitted, and are essential.
The Woodpecker Keeps Returning
The woodpecker keeps returning
to drill the house wall.
Put a pie plate over one place, he chooses another.
There is nothing good to eat there:
he has found in the house
a resonant billboard to post his intentions,
his voluble strength as provider.
But where is the female he drums for? Where?
I ask this, who am myself the ruined siding,
the handsome red-capped bird, the missing mate.
Poem copyright (c) 2005 by Jane Hirshfield from her forthcoming book "After" (Harper Collins, 2006), and reprinted by permission of the author. This weekly column is supported by the Department of English at UNL, The Poetry Foundation and The Library of Congress. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
GO TO: ISSUE OF AUGUST 18
ARTS HEADLINES FOR AUGUST 18
Grant Funds Power Sculpture Rehab
American Life in Poetry
Dark, light childhood movies play at Ross
Piano event begins Sept. 6
Single event tickets for Lied's new season on sale
732176S34817X
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