“Early Spring in the Field” by Tom Hennen from Darkness Sticks to Everything. © Copper Canyon Press, 2013.
Tom Hennen’s poem, reformatted, to show every line as a title.
The crow’s voice filtered through the walls of the farmhouse
sounds of a rusty car engine turning over
clouds on a north wind that whistles softly and cold
spruce trees planted in a line on the south side of the house weave and scrape at the air
I’ve walked to a far field to a fence line of rocks where I am surprised to see soft mud this raw day
no new tracks in the mud
desiccated grass among the rocks
a bare grove of trees in the distance
a blue sky thin as an eggshell with a crack of dark geese running through it
their voices faint and almost troubled as they disappear in a wedge that has opened at last the cold heart of winter.
The Vibrant Channeled Creator 