American Life in Poetry
American
Life
in
Poetry:
Column
631
BY
TED
KOOSER,
U.S.
POET
LAUREATE,
2004-2006
There
are
few
writers
who have
done
more
to
promote
the
work
of other
writers
than
Grace
Cavalieri,
who
lives
in
the
nation's
capitol.
She
has
a radio
show,
"The
Poet
and
the
Poem"
from
the
Library
of
Congress,
she
writes
book reviews
and
is a
tireless
advocate
for
poetry
day
in
and
day
out.
All
this
while
writing
her
own
poems
and
plays.
Her
most
recent
book
is
With
(Somondoco,
2016)
Wild
Life
Behind
the
silo,
the
Mother
Rabbit
hunches
like
a
giant
spider
with
strange
calm:
six
tiny
babies
beneath,
each
clamoring
for a
sweet
syringe
of milk.
This
may
sound
cute
to
you, reading
from
your
pulpit
of
plenty,
but
one
small
one
was
left
out
of reach,
a knife
of fur
barging
between
the
others.
I
could
have
cautioned
the
mother
rabbit
I
would.
If I
could
summon
the
Bunnies
to fit
him
in
beneath
the
belly's
swell
I
would.
But
instead,
I
stood
frozen,
wishing
for
some
equity.
This
must
be
why
it's
called
Wild
Life
because
of all
the
crazed
emotions
tangled
up
in
the
underbrush
within
us.
Did
I
tell
you
how
the
smallest
one,
black
and
trembling,
hopped
behind
the
kudzu
still
filigreed
with
wanting?
Should
we
talk
now
of
animal
heritage,
their
species,
creature
development?
And
what
do
we
say
about
form
and
focus—
writing
this
when
a
stray
goes
hungry,
and
away.