A Blessing

by James Wright



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.



From Above the River: The Complete Poems and Selected Prose. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1990 (poem originally published in 1963). The friend in this poem was Robert Bly. This poem, in a form longer than haiku, captures the ecstatic moment present in many haiku. See also James Wright’s “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota.”