mjh's blog

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Sharp

Mon 04/16/12 at 10:47 pm

porcupine near Cabezon, New Mexico Add this to my totem:
the porcupine —
fearsome
barbed
solitary
all defense
but subject still
to the mammalian verbs:
cuddle, snuggle, nuzzle. mjh

8/26/1997

Thanks to Wendell Lane for taking a word out of my mouth.

Listen to Sharp (18 seconds)

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In Poems:
Newer: going home
Older: Blush
Tags: porcupines, wildlife

Graze

Thu 04/12/12 at 7:47 pm

A mile or two away
above the timberline
sheep spilled single-file
across a meadow
and pooled at a low point.
“If we can see them,” you asked,
“can’t the coyotes?”

At that moment,
we met the strangers
man and woman –
so familiar
so good looking
so foreign.
I know now
they were really coyotes
having a joke with
how easy it is
to be human.

How do I know?
Perhaps it was
the calm way they looked at us.
Perhaps it was
the way they fell on the currant bush
devouring berries.
Perhaps it was
all the wool they wore. mjh

Listen to Graze (36 seconds)

There may be something fitting in the concurrence of the start of National Poetry Month and April Fool’s Day — something in this poem, as well. This poem is the first I remember writing while camping with Merri, many years ago, along South Mineral Creek, in Colorado. mjh

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