mjh's blog

The Heaven of Animals, by James Dickey

Mon 05/24/04 at 6:25 pm

The Heaven of Animals

Here they are. The soft eyes

open.
If they have lived in a wood
It is a wood.
If they have lived on plains
It is grass rolling
Under their feet forever.

Having no souls, they have come,
Anyway, beyond their knowing.
Their instincts wholly bloom
And they rise.
The soft eyes open.

To match them, the landscape flowers,
Outdoing, desperately
Outdoing what is required:
The richest wood,
The deepest field.

For

some of these,
It could not be the place
It is, without blood.
These hunt, as they have done
But with claws and teeth grown perfect,

More deadly than they can believe.
They stalk more silently,
And crouch on limbs of trees,
And their descent
Upon the bright

backs of their prey

May take years
In a sovereign floating of joy.
And those that are hunted
Know this as their life,
Their

reward: to walk

Under such trees in full knowledge
Of what is in glory above them,
And to feel no fear,
But acceptance,

compliance.
Fulfilling themselves without pain

At the cycle’s center,
They tremble, they walk
Under the tree,
They fall, they

are torn,
They rise, they walk again.

– James Dickey

My Droogie, Robert, sent me this poem for my birthday. Dickey

has long been a favorite of mine. mjh

my poem

for Dickey

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In poetry:
Newer: Leonard Cohen’s Birthday
Older: Mary Oliver and Barbara Kingsolver