It's never just one thing
Poetry for mixed emotions
I think it's safe to say that life does not illicit from us one emotion at a time. Good movies, good literature, good art, and good music, in my opinion, reflect this complexity. One of the poets that I love for his ability to provide, in a single poem, many different flavors of life, blended well and not heavy-handedly, is Yusef Komunyakaa. Today I thought of this one (taken from Pleasure Dome: New & Collected Poems, 1975-1999) after spotting a sign about bees while being driven, groggy and a bit slap-happy, home after platelets donation and grocery shopping. No, the connection isn’t evident, but also, it is.
Yellowjackets
When the plowblade struck
An old stump hiding under
The soil like a beggar’s
Rotten tooth, they swarmed up
& Mister Jackson left the plow
Wedged like a whaler’s harpoon.
The horse was midnight
Against dusk, tethered to somebody’s
Pocketwatch. He shivered, but not
The way women shook their heads
Before mirrors at the five
& dime—a deeper connection
To the low field’s evening star.
He stood there, in tracechains,
Lathered in froth, just
Stopped by a great, goofy
Calmness. He whinnied
Once, & then the whole
Beautiful, blue-black sky
Fell on his back.