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"Field Guide", by Tony Hoagland

Thank you very much Toni Goodman for sharing this poem with us. I couldn't find a photo to post with it, and then I remembered the lovely card that a dear student sent me some time ago (thank you Kris!).

I hope that you will enjoy this poem, and that it helps us to recognize those moments, and be present when it happens.


Field Guide

Tony Hoagland


Once, in the cool blue middle of a lake,

up to my neck in that most precious element of all,


I found a pale-gray, curled-upwards pigeon feather

floating on the tension of the water


at the very instant when a dragonfly,

like a blue-green iridescent bobby pin,


hovered over it, then lit, and rested.

That’s all.


I mention this in the same way

that I fold the corner of a page


in certain library books,

so that the next reader will know


where to look for the good parts.



About Tony Hoagland:




dragonfly art by jody bergsma
Original art by Jody Bergsma. Jody Bergsma Galleries Inc. Bellingham, Washington
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