Time and Materials
"Mouth Slightly Open"
by Robert Hass
The body a yellow brilliance and a head
Some orange color from a Chinese painting
Dipped in sunset by the summer gods
Who are also producing that twitchy shiver
In the cottonwoods, less wind than river,
Where the bird you thought you saw
Was, whether you believe what you thought
You saw or not, and then was not, had
Absconded, leaving behind the emptiness
That hums a little in you now, and is not bad
Or sad, and only just resembles awe or fear.
The bird is elsewhere now, and you are here
[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL-kRhcitFE&w=640&h=480]
Robert Hass reads his poem "Time and Materials."
Listen to the poet discussing his recent collection, Time and Materials, which won the 2007 National Book Award for poetry, on KCRW's Bookworm (2/21/08).