If dragonflies can mate atop the surface tension
of water, surely these tons of bison can mince
across the river, their fur peeling in strips like old
wallpaper, their huge eyes adjusting to how far
they can see when there's no big or little bluestem,
no Indian grass nor prairie cord grass to plod through.
Maybe because it's bright in the blown snow
and swirling grit, their vast heads are lowered
to the gray ice: nothing to eat, little to smell.
They have their own currents. You could watch a herd
of running pronghorn swerve like a river rounding
a meander and see better what I mean. But
bison are a deeper, deliberate water, and there will
never be enough water for any West but the one
into which we watch these bison carefully disappear.
12 Nov: "Herd Of Buffalo Crossing The Missouri On Ice" by William Matthews
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Marvelous imagery here!
ReplyDelete-"dragonflies can mate atop the surface tension of water"
-"tons of bison can mince across the river"
-"their fur peeling in strips like old wallpaper"
-"they have their own currents"
-"her of running pronghorn swerve like a river rounding a meander"
This was powerful. "But bison are a deeper, deliberate water [NATURE], and there will never be enough water for any West but the one into which we can watch these bison carefully disappear."
The telling of the majesty of nature...and then its possibly destruction. Case for environmentalism. Only the West abusing? Or was this poem just written here?
Case for plant-based!
Weird- I left my response here yesterday for this but it doesn't appear to be here today...
ReplyDeleteI liked the imagery of the dragonflies mating and buffalo mincing and swerving like a river...action imagery! The fur peeling like wallpaper....texture imagery! This will make me think, read, and write imagery with all senses. I used to define it as words that were easy to picture in my head as they were being read, but I think true imagery can be seen, touched, smelled, felt, and heard...audio imagery...
Environmental poem. Wonder if there was a difference in the authors image of the West and East on these animals or if perhaps geographically these animals are only being abused/hunted in this specific location. Using the buffalo as a symbol for all animals? And why did he choose a dragonfly for the image of rebirth? An insect versus mammal. Very different life cycles.
The imagery is strong here.
ReplyDelete"They have their own currents." What a simple, yet cool line. They are like water which puts a fuller comparison to animals and their movements.
I wonder if "never enough" refers to people. The animals are the water too. There will never be enough because humans are so greedy and destructive. That is me reading my biases into the poem, but what do you think? Am I being too much of a pessimist?
You have pessimists qualities, yes :) but I think you round them out quite nicely...humans are greedy and destructive and I am pretty sure this next presidential election is securing your pessimism quite truly.
ReplyDeleteThe currents....the ripples...like the butterfly effect. Our actions have an effect on every other thing. How can we continue to ruin such things as this beauty? Do we ultimately have control over these actions? Some of these actions? Or does our lifestyle get in the way? Can we flip this or is it too late? How many of us have to come to this awareness to be able to offset the damage done?
Awesome poem!
ReplyDeleteAJ, I found your comment. We have a spam comment folder, it had one comment. Your lost response.