Monday, April 1, 2024

The Field Guide of Creatures in their Wild Pursuits

What is a poem
But a page from the field guide
Of creatures in their wild pursuits

I wrote this haiku in response to the poem Field Guide by Tony Hoagland, which I've copied below.  What a fine poem it is.  A friend had posted it on FB and as soon as I read it, I went and bought the book it's from - Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty.  I rarely buy poetry books, but that was a title I couldn't resist. A title that immediately conveyed a sensibility - the same sensibility that informs the poem -- and charts a path for the poet, as the self-appointed explorer of our strained kinship to the natural world, filtered through the mediums of close observation, Tang poetry and digital ink. I love poets who master this form of direct address, in which the poetry is secondary to the narrative and what the poet has to say.




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