Catching Moles

This:

 

Becomes this:

Becomes this:

A Life in Nature: Found First

No certainty and yet
I will try to.. try to what?
Disturb myself?
I just look all creepy silent
on bug legs.
I just write this stuff—
leaves , insubstantial scatterings,
well…ordinary stuff
from midair that I can hold
In my head In their entirety,
Fragments of poetry pottery
I dig up inside my mindhills,
alongside and flowing,
simple, factual, sharp, smooth,
and written while wandering
across a pasture with a bagful of traps,
word traps,
sprung and waiting
to snap.

And finally becomes this:

All of this was sponsored by a gift of a book by Kevin Hodgson:

 

 

Thanks for the inspiration.  I am reminded of Vaso Popa’s poem, “The Small Box”. This post might be thought of as a hollow book if you will.

 

The Small Box

The small box gets its first teeth
And its small length
Its small width and small emptiness
And all that it has got

The small box is growing bigger
And now the cupboard is in it
That it was in before

And it grows bigger and bigger and bigger
And now has in it the room
And the house and the town and the land
And the world it was in before

The small box remembers its childhood
And by overgreat longing
It becomes a small box again

Now in the small box
Is the whole world quite tiny
You can easily put it in a pocket
Easily steal it easily lose it

Take care of the small box

(Quoted from page ix of Poetry Is, by Ted Hughes. Doubleday, 1967.)
For a brief biography of Vasko Popa, click here. For images of or relating to Vasko Popa, click here.

4 Comments


  1. // Reply

    Your exploration of this poem is a curiosity that I’ve admired for many years.

    Today’s article reminded me of an article I saw on LinkedIn earlier today, about the need to reform education. Look at the goals the writer has posted. I see some of this in you, Kevin and others from #clmooc. https://www.diamandis.com/blog/education-failing?hss_channel=lis-kQX_GK_W7C

    I use maps in my blog articles to show the need to spread ideas, resources, learning opportunities, mentors, etc. to all places where kids need extra help. They also emphasize how difficult such a task is, since there are so many minds that need to be influenced, for so many years.

    You guys continue to provide inspiration. Thank you.


  2. // Reply

    Here is a poem for your taken from your comments and our experiences together. So many thanks for our co-labors and for your inspiration.

    Explore this poem,
    Make of it a lingering curiosity.
    Admire it— for years—like we have.
    Keep being reminded of the need to reread it.
    Look at its hopes,
    Turn what the writer wrote inside out
    Like a sea cuke’s guts
    See some of this augury
    In your own self,
    In your friends.
    then blaze that map over and over
    like you already have
    Where you mark both good and bad paths,
    places to rest and fruit to eat,
    And mentors to guide us on our own paths,
    Especially all those etcetera places
    where help hearkens.
    Such a difficult… such a task this is,
    This making of maps
    Over so many years,
    Generating hope and fond expectation
    For you know not who,
    Always provident.


  3. // Reply

    Mindhills … yes … great way to turn the phrase … I am glad the poem found another home, and hope its words is a reminder to us (me, as well as you, but more me, maybe) to pay attention to the quiet of the world, and that all work — even that of the molecatcher — is valuable, and part of the balance.
    Kevin

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