ustxtxb_obs_1996_08_30_50_00023-00000_000.pdf

Page 21

August 30, 1996, 12:00 AM, CDT

BOOKS & THE CULTURE Pitchfork The straight Ash handle graceful as a Viking ship. Tan and darkened by hand oil. Handled. Odin’s tree Ygdrasill, baseball bats and ancient Irish oars are Ash. Tree of sea power with that power that water holds. This morning Adrienne used this pitchfork to turn the compost. Sawdust not breaking down as fast as horse manure. A slower heat coming. 5 tines hardened in fire, forged, the tip of each shaped different. Hammered. The long handle precisely joined to the steel. As perfect as the motion made, the arc you define at 5 in the morning turning the compost. Things Come To This Sunflower, This Morning A Cicada. By now most of the Sunflowers have opened except for the group at the top of the garden I planted later. There is a time just after the Solstice in the heat when they open. I should name it. Things come to visit this Sunflower. At least twice as tall as I am. This Sunflower doesn’t open but grows taller & the flower from down here appears a new star at twilight. Things come to visit it now, this morning a Cicada, not a Cicada husk but a whole Cicada with wings clung near the top. When it was still there at noon I thought it dead but by nighttime it had flown away. Things come to visit it now. I should name it. Today 2 small raccoons came. I will see tonight what visits in the moonlight. Robert Trammell Robert Trammell is program director for WordSpace in Dallas, a fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, and winner of the DART \(Dallas Area Rapid Tran enamel wind panels to be installed at the Lover’s Lane Station. He has published poems and essays in over one hundred fifty publica tions and is author of twelve books, the latest being Pickups, Bugs, and Oram’s Orchard. These two poems are from a series about Texas summer and sunflowers. Trammell’s language tips its head quietly inside images, the same way a sunflower does in a world of changing sun. His observations are gracious and keen. Naomi Shihab Nye AUGUST 30, 1996 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 23

<div id="pico"><p>BOOKS & THE CULTURE Pitchfork  The straight Ash  handle graceful  as a Viking ship.  Tan and darkened  by hand  oil. Handled.  Odin’s tree Ygdrasill,  baseball bats  and ancient Irish oars  are Ash. Tree of  sea power with that  power that water holds.  This morning Adrienne  used this pitchfork to turn  the compost. Sawdust  not breaking down  as fast as horse manure.  A slower heat coming.  5 tines hardened in fire,  forged, the tip of each shaped  different. Hammered.  The long handle precisely  joined to the steel.  As perfect as the motion  made, the arc you define  at 5 in the morning  turning the compost.   Things Come To This Sunflower,  This Morning A Cicada.  By now most of the Sunflowers  have opened except  for the group at the top  of the garden I planted later.  There is a time just after  the Solstice in the heat  when they open.  I should name it.  Things come to visit this Sunflower.  At least twice as tall as I am.  This Sunflower doesn’t open but grows  taller & the flower from  down here appears a new star  at twilight.  Things come to visit it now,  this morning a Cicada,  not a Cicada husk  but a whole Cicada with wings  clung near the top.  When it was still there at noon  I thought it dead  but by nighttime it had flown away.  Things come to visit it now.  I should name it.  Today 2 small raccoons came.  I will see tonight what visits  in the moonlight.  Robert Trammell  Robert Trammell is program director for WordSpace in  Dallas, a fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and  Culture, and winner of the DART \(Dallas Area Rapid Tran enamel wind panels to be installed at the Lover’s Lane Station. He  has published poems and essays in over one hundred fifty publica tions and is author of twelve books, the latest being  Pickups, Bugs,  and Oram’s Orchard.  These two poems are from a series about Texas summer and  sunflowers. Trammell’s language tips its head quietly inside  images, the same way a sunflower does in a world of changing sun.  His observations are gracious and keen. Naomi Shihab Nye  AUGUST 30, 1996  THE TEXAS OBSERVER  23 </p>
</div>

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