Now I begin blogging. At first I thought of this endeavor as a Hudson Valley poetry blog to showcase our region’s writers. But it won’t just be poets from this area. Nor just poetry. But it will things that delight me, touch me, intrigue me, trouble me, or simply want to be shared. So let me think of it as the Mother Grouse poetry blog to honor “My Late Mother as a Ruffed Grouse” who helped lure me into this art form years ago. Ruffed grouse don’t often appear in poems, but here’s one I’m hoping she may meet now that it’s February.
Because I Am Heir To Many Things
warmth of dandelion, shamble of bear,
caution of inchworm, brain of flicker,
I am not surprised when, ankle-deep
in snow among February woods,
I feel suddenly aroused by a sound
like a wooden spoon rattling a bucket.
But it is just another brother, a grouse,
confused and drumming on a hollow log,
like an old man dreaming he is young again,
wishing for love in a preposterous season.
That’s by Paul Zimmer from Crossing to Sunlight Revisited published by the University of Georgia Press. I discovered it in The Poets Guide to the Birds, edited by Judith Kitchen and Ted Kooser, a gem given to me by Matthew J. Spireng, who has his own wonderful poem about a killdeer in the anthology.
Enjoy your visit.
