April 3: Angels and Owls, Poet of the Week, Ricahrd Wilbur, "A Barred Owl"

I am tired of arguing today.  It's seems like that's all I have been doing.  Arguing with myself and other people.  In the end, at 5 p.m., I don't feel any better about life.  I need a poetry break.

I've chosen former U. S. Poet Laureate Richard Wilbur as Poet of the Week.  His work always takes me outside my head, which is exactly where I need to be right now.  Away from my thoughts and angers and worries.

Saint Marty is thankful for Richard Wilbur tonight.  He reminds Saint Marty of the angels and owls beyond his windowpanes. 

A Barred Owl

by:  Richard Wilbur

The warping night air having brought the boom

Of an owl’s voice into her darkened room,

We tell the wakened child that all she heard

Was an odd question from a forest bird,

Asking of us, if rightly listened to,

“Who cooks for you?” and then “Who cooks for you?”

Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,

Can also thus domesticate a fear,

And send a small child back to sleep at night

Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight

Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw

Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.