On Two of Paul Bower’s Poems
by Ken Hada
After You've Left for Work
One of the ponies, the gray,
scratches his back against a low-hanging
cedar branch. He lifts his hooves, dancing
to a horse song, moving his long head
in ovals to place his round haunches
just so.
I read Jane Kenyon on the porch,
the morning light golden within the shadows,
and try to keep the smallest dog
off my lap. But what good are words today?
No more important than the fading wet paw prints
on my pant leg. No more important
than the dying drooped cedar limb
a pony finds to make himself comfortable.
Paul Bowers, The Lone, Cautious Animal Life
VAC: Purple Flag Press, 2016
Used with permission
The Fox and All
What is a fox
but a dog who believes
he is a cat?
– which explains why you can't
reason with him, be he
gray or red,
be he a cliche'd chicken stealer
or a dedicated rodent killer
too smart for his own good
as the folk tales plainly show.
The one I saw, though,
the one I caught a glimpse of
in the dying grass near the road
was but a rusty cloud, but a muddled wisp,
and I thought,
Ah, so that is what the world is like;
That is what the world is like.
Paul Bowers, The Lone, Cautious Animal Life
VAC: Purple Flag Press, 2016
Used with permission
These two short poems share a common theme of silence, they suggest a truth beyond words. Something beyond reason. Both poems are short and precise in their structure and are economical in their word choice, their structure and composition reinforcing their theme of something beyond words. They are not overwritten, they do not say too much. Like the pony and the fox, in the poems, each poem is a special, unique, brief encounter – a glimpse
The Epiphanic moment, the epiphany in each poem leads us to affirm silence:1) What good are words today? In the first poem, and "Ah, so that is what the world is like – repeated for emphasis, in the second poem.
But it's not just silence that the poems speak to. They speak to a truth that is Unspeakable – a moment in life that confirms our instinctive, primal connection to all life – particularly mammal life.
The poems also make a case for Humility. The situations in each poem humble us – suggest our place in the cosmos, our particular place in the organic world of which we are part.
In the poems, the human is not master, but one who shares an existence, even if not fully understood, or explainable. He's animal-like in that regard. The poems present a shared presence with MYSTERY.
So, "that is what the world is like."
What the world is like, is mysterious, with moments of bliss, along with the desire to seek comfort, like the pony and the cedar limb, and the man on the porch with his dog – but these sunny moments are shadowed by the thought of death – and our ultimate aloneness – notice the man is reading Jane Kenyon, a poet famous for writing excellent poetry as she struggled with a terminal illness leading to an early death. Also, as the poem's title might imply – after "You've left for work" suggesting his wife, the man is alone, and though there is no immediate sense of loss, the title is curious, suggesting a response to being ultimately alone one day. – and that aloneness, seems shared with the animal life and the elements we all share. Maybe we navigate our existential aloneness by making ourselves comfortable with the elements.
These are two lovely poems – simple in their immediate situation but visualizing a deep moment of profound silence that overwhelms the senses.
Thank you for listening to this program. I'm Ken Hada.
POETS ON THE PLAINS HOST
Ken Hada is a poet and professor at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma where he has directed the annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival for 20 years. Ken is the author of twelve collections of poetry, including his latest: Visions for the Night (to be released April 3, 2025), and Come Before Winter, from Turning Plow Press. His previous collection, Contour Feathers (Turning Plow Press, 2021) received the Oklahoma Book Award. Other works of his have been awarded by The Western Writers of America, The National Western Heritage Museum, South Central Modern Language Association and The Oklahoma Center for the Book, and featured on "The Writer's Almanac." In addition to his poetry, Ken remains active in scholarship, writing and publishing regularly on regional writing, literary ecology and multicultural literatures. The “Ken Hada Collection” is held at the Western History Collection Library at the University of Oklahoma. Ken Hada: https://kenhada.org/ or khadakhada@gmail.com
FEATURED POET
From Ringwood, Oklahoma, Paul Bowers teaches writing and literature at Northern Oklahoma College. He holds a B.A. from the University of Tulsa and both an M.A. and a Ph D. from Oklahoma State University. Honors include Pushcart nominations for fiction and poetry, and the Herman M. Swafford Award for Fiction. Recent publications include a book-length poetry collection, The Lone, Cautious, Animal Life (purple flag press, D. 2016).
Find more at https://www.turningplowpress.com/
