'We are listening'

 

  “A poem records emotions and moods that lie beyond normal language, that can only be patched together and hinted at metaphorically.” – Diane Ackerman

 

Poet, essayist and naturalist – known for her wide-ranging curiosity and poetic explorations of the natural world –Ackerman was born in Waukegan, IL on Oct. 7, 1948.   Among her best-known poetry collections (of the 22 she has published) is Jaguar of My Destroyer: New and Collected Poems.  Also known for her study of (and essays on) the senses, she said she is fascinated by how they affect people’s lives.   

“We live on the leash of our senses,” she said.   For Saturday’s poem, here is Ackerman’s,

  We Are Listening 

As our metal eyes wake

to absolute night,

where whispers fly

from the beginning of time,

we cup our ears to the heavens.

We are listening

 

on the volcanic lips of Flagstaff

and the fields beyond Boston

and in a great array that blooms

like coral from the desert floor,

on highwire webs patrolled

by computer wires in Puerto Rico.

 

We are listening for a sound

beyond us, beyond sound,

 

searching for a lighthouse

in the breakwaters of our uncertainty,

an electronic murmur,

a bright, fragile I am.

 

Small as tree frogs

staking out one end

of an endless swamp,

we are listening

through the longest night

we imagine, which dawns

between the life and times of stars.