Author: Rae Spencer

The Cardinals

Rae Spencer4 Comments

Two mated cardinals
Muted mother and masked father
Alarmed and flashed around the corner
Through crepe myrtle, plum, and iris

Their single nestling, un-nested
Precocious and half-fledged
Quavering in the awful sun
Exposed, expelled, exploring
The perilous yard

An infant still shaped to shell
Convex and vexed
Voraciously alive
Irresistibly ugly kernel
Of what might be lovely
Clad in summer plume

Though now all hungry gape
Begging nourishment
Little family of fear on the lawn
Watched by the brooding housewife
Who sits her own reluctant nest
Of amniotic memory
Hatching into phrase

And eager to mature
Like the cardinal chick
Which disappeared next morning
Gone from the woodpile and irises
From the bright wing of father
From the red-headed husband
Whose pajama-clad wife
Frets barefoot in the dew

Crisis Management

Rae Spencer1 Comment

Under attack, trees share their secrets
Spread rumors of invasion
Or infestation, a whiff of stress perfume
Winding through the damaged grove

Whispering the key to survival
Simple and complex molecules seep
From root to root, fungal lines
Of communication ringing

The soil switchboard with toxic
News, rousing a gene, waking
A cascade of defense in pristine leaves
That become jaded, learn the noxious

Knack of bitterness, turn tasteless
In time to repel the siege

Monday, May 28

Rae Spencer8 Comments

A moth, a dragonfly, and a new publication. Little things, yes, but most days are made of little things.

Publication note:  My poem “The Congresswoman’s Brain” was published on vox poetica’s today’s words page over the weekend. It is now on the poemblog. Many thanks to editor Annmarie Lockhart!

Dragonflies Arrive

Rae Spencer4 Comments

Two days ago, the first dragonflies arrived in the yard. I had seen a few cruising through, in previous weeks, but none stopping to stay. This one was a female Blue Dasher, hunting in the pear tree. As I tried to get her picture, I got distracted by another Blue Dasher a few branches over. Beside it, yet another, this one male. I circled the tree, trying to count, but soon gave up counting and concentrated on pictures.

Early this afternoon, they moved into the wax myrtle, which gets the most direct midday sunshine. I suspect they will migrate back to the pear tree by sunset.

So far, the overwhelming majority are Blue Dashers, but Halloween Pennants and Golden Skimmers should show up before too long. Maybe even a few new species. This will be our twelfth summer here, and I had never seen damselflies in the yard before this spring. Now they make regular stops in the irises.

I love how the yard changes from season to season and year to year. It’s an ordinary yard on an ordinary street in an ordinary city, proving over and over again the extraordinary nature of “ordinary”.

Life on Mars

Rae Spencer5 Comments

The 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith

After finishing Life on Mars, I couldn’t bear to stop reading. I flipped back to the beginning, and it was like starting a whole new book. The poems grew and changed between readings, making me feel as if I grew and changed with them. Absolutely amazing poetry.

Links to a few poems from the book:

My God, It’s Full of Stars

The Universe is a House Party

Alternate Take: Levon Helm

Video link:

Tracy K. Smith reads from Life on Mars for the NewsHour Poetry Series

Here’s more of that interview and reading: