A Poem On A Tuesday

I was going to include a few poems by James Wright yesterday, but I got caught up reading them all morning instead. And then my son woke with a fever so my priorities shifted. Had I posted yesterday, these are the poems I would have included:

Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s 

Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota

Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,

Asleep on the black trunk,

Blowing like a leaf in green shadows.

Down the ravine behind the empty house,

The cowbells follow one another

Into the distance of the afternoon.

To my right,

In a field of sunlight between pines,

Two droppings of last year’s horses

Blaze up in golden stones.

I lean back, as evening darkens and comes on.

A chicken hawk floats over, looking for a home.

I have wasted my life.

Today I Was So Happy, So I Made This Poem

As the plump squirrel scampers

Across the roof of the corncrib,

The moon suddenly stands up in the darkness,

And I see that it is impossible to die.

Each moment of time is a mountain.

An eagle rejoices in the oak trees of heaven,

Crying

This is what I wanted.