April is Poetry Month: Day 28

 A Blessing

BY JAMES WRIGHT (1927-1980)

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,

Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.

And the eyes of those two Indian ponies

Darken with kindness.

They have come gladly out of the willows

To welcome my friend and me.

We step over the barbed wire into the pasture

Where they have been grazing all day, alone.

They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness   

That we have come.

They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.

There is no loneliness like theirs.   

At home once more,

They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.   

I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,

For she has walked over to me   

And nuzzled my left hand.   

She is black and white,

Her mane falls wild on her forehead,

And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear

That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist.

Suddenly I realize

That if I stepped out of my body I would break

Into blossom.

From: The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 1975

    Another poet who died young, who understood despair and loneliness.  It's not necessary to live in pain and sadness to create art, but so often art is the phoenix that rises out of the ashes of suffering.  Would we have Sunflowers and Starry Nights if van Gogh had been a happy accountant or carefree aristocrat?  The Bloomsbury Review praised this poet-- "James Wright wasn't afraid to find out who he really was, no matter how frightening that self may have been. This is the essence of the pure, clear voice we encounter in his poems, and this is why James Wright endures."  

    I am grateful everyday that whether in joy or sorrow, there are artists around us bringing their vision and their beautiful messages to us through the works of their minds, their hearts and their hands.