Coyote crouched, watching her as she crafted her
careful mosaic on the blackberry cloth of the night
This is slow work
Her hands glowed from the warmth of the stars
Before she could stop him, he flung the remaining
stars out into the night spilling them in a wild
disarray
What have you done, you foolish coyote
Never knowing the confusion that would always
dwell among them
Kathryn's "Foolish Coyote" leaves us speechless. The steady pace, beautifully crafted diction and mystical sensibility reads like it comes from a practiced and mature hand. In reality, this poem was composed by Kathryn many years ago, when she was in 3rd grade. It is impressive all on it's own, and nearly unbelievable given the age of the author. We loved the lines like "blackberry cloth of night," but every line seemed to transport the reader to a private viewing of a small, mischievous secret of the creation of the stars.
ReplyDeleteI still find it hard to believe I wrote that poem in the third grade. I actually googled lines of it when I first found it to make sure I hadn't been at the very least heavily influenced by somebody else, but it seems to be entirely original. In that particular spiral-bound notebook with a yarn-haired self-portrait on the front, there is also one other origin story and two other mentions of blackberries, but nothing touches this.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite surreal discovering that you wrote one of your best poems to date when you were three or four feet tall.