A Blessing

I've loved this poem ever since I first read it. In one of Natalie Goldberg's books, I think it was Thunder and Lightning. She talked about how when she reached the last lines she actually fell back on the bookshelves.

Kind of like Emily Dickinson who said that when she read good poetry, she felt like the top of her head was coming off.

There is an ecstasy beyond the mundane. We capture it in words, sometimes, in pieces of music, in a garden, sometimes in the light in your eyes.

May your eyes darken with kindness as you read Wright's words.


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.

By James Wright