I. Invertebrates
Ants: Philosopher-Industrialists
They are not reductionists.
When they meet at high speeds
on the neatly mowed pathways
that represent the thorough chewing
given their ideas,
it is with urgent gestures
in forceful nose-to-nose deliveries.
How to overtake the brisk delegations of
thoughts, thoughts that are
constantly, multiply hatching?
Headstand Beetle: Philosopher-Sentry
With this headstand, the visitor
is invited to remain outside.
Of what does the encoded posture speak,
what midden of secrets?
But the answer is silence--
stubborn, and perhaps serene.
Tarantula: Philosopher-Architect
Each footfall erects a cathedral,
a chamber unfolding the reverberant hush
of the walker. Each step is a mosaic
of a thousand ideas contemplated through the brief,
unrushed eternity, through the silken dust storm,
of the next step.
II. Reptiles & Amphibians
Lizard: Philosopher-Courier
The information delivered
must not be trifled with.
How easily it could shatter.
Its delivery requires the ritual
series of deferential bows
and long-limbed, muscle-flexing proclamations.
The tail then takes to the air
and the courier flees, a new idea
overhead like a bright cloud of laughter.
Snake: Philosopher-Citizen
The bowels of the snake
are the bowels of the earth
for a rodent swallowed whole:
a fitting burrow for the afterlife.
The swallower, part rodent and snake,
part everything but,
lies coiled in meditation, joined
in fellowship with stones.
Toad: Philosopher-Bassoonist
A body that is pure music
is a pulpy one, and the membrane
fleshing it out from the air mass
is tentative: a breeze
can suck some music out
while another breeze pours more in.
III. Mammals
Coyote: Philosopher-Ambassador
Emerging to sing of that other world
while on the terra firma of this one
takes discipline. The singer
must invoke what's most irresistible
without flying off to rejoin it.
Javelina: Philosopher-Kamikaze
Nothing satisfies like a delicious thought
thoroughly rooted out. And the rooting itself!
Life is too full to consider tidiness
or exit-strategies.
Fox: Philosopher-Gigolo
A crystalline thought
conveyed on the most exquisite silence
will seduce anyone.
The wind has been seduced
and repeats to no one
the savored proofs
of its lover's illicit passage.
Nor will the grass betray
how it cushioned its lover's feet.
And the juniper is inspired
to find within itself
the perfect hearth,
and then to smooth all traces
of the parted entryway.
IV. Birds
Quail: Philosopher-Librarian
An orderly mind and a well-behaved brood
speak highly of each other. They speak at times
in clipped phrases, whose frequent repetition
allows for nuanced re-readings; and at times
they chatter, offering encouragements
to each other's ranging phyla of pursuits.
Raven: Philosopher-Fool
The court jester who is also the Court
will never starve for lack of insight.
Boastful wings on earth and air
restate their kingdom's measure. It is only proper
that each day serve up fresh humiliations
as lesser birds send the master packing. Thus,
in the midst of a raucous cartwheel,
can the raven's eye stay true.
Vulture: Philosopher-Scholar
A single lifetime is allotted
for dogging two opposite studies:
to ascend, invisible rung upon rung,
the spiral staircases of the air; and yet
from such scholarly heights
to discern among the arrayed opportunities
to partake of the bountiful earth.
September 2005