without & with...

from my anthology of must read (a)merican poems

Ralph Coleman

Wild Strawberries


a field without tar
or power lines
or groundhog killers

a field quiet
as fallen pine needles—
loud as an angry bluejay

a field where poems grow
like wild strawberries

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Ralph Coleman was a most extraordinary writer and human being. His gift was in smallness. His poetry is a delicate and almost ethereal presence that hovers very close to perfection. Many of his works, and “Wild Strawberries” is a good example, exhibit a zen-like approach to the world. In that respect, Coleman’s writing is quite similar to the work of Jeff Daniel Marion, one of the masters of Appalachian poetry. One should not make the mistake, however, of confining Marion or Coleman to the world of Appalachia – a world often maligned and misunderstood by those outside its mystery. Both writers are as universal in their transcendence as Basho or Snyder or Gregg.

One of the beauties in Coleman’s poem – the closing piece to his marvelous chapbook A Skiff of Snow – is its balance of discordant features. A world of power lines, an unspoiled field, pine needles, the angry jay. The poet moves the reader into another dimension by showing what is missing – tar, electricity, killers. Civilization’s encroachment, even in its absence, looms shadow-like, but ineffective, over the creative force in the universe. What is not makes possible what is: “a field where poems grow”. A poem about enlightenment, change, possibility.

Silence is necessary – “a field quiet” – the poet tells us. Out of the silence … out of the nothingness … something emerges, grows, endures. It grows wild, plentiful, and without a reliance on cultivation.