Jeffrey Harrison
Among Flowering Milkweed
The Light in the Marsh Grass
Artist Statement: Talking & Listening to Plants
I wrote these two poems several years apart and didn’t notice at first that both describe encounters with the natural world that included other people—two friends in “Light in the Marsh Grass,” and my wife and mother in “Among Flowering Milkweed.” In both cases the world offered us an unasked-for gift: the amazing display of light in the marsh grass of a cove near Cape Cod, and the otherworldly swarming of sphinx moths around a stand of milkweed in the Adirondacks. The initial response was a mix of curiosity and excitement, followed by the need to find an explanation, giving way to the speechlessness of awe. These experiences enlivened our ties to the world around us while also strengthening the human bond between us, as though we were suddenly part of a circuit and could feel the current running though everything. When my friends and I got back to the house where we were staying, we wanted to tell everyone about what we’d seen. Writing the poems was perhaps an extension of that impulse: to further share the experiences—or some version of them—with others.
Jeffrey Harrison is the author of six books of poetry, including, most recently, Between Lakes (Four Way Books, 2020) and Into Daylight (Tupelo Press, 2014), winner of the Dorset Prize. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the NEA, among other honors, and his poems have appeared widely in magazines and anthologies, including Best American Poetry and the Pushcart Prize volumes. He lives in Massachusetts and can also be found at jeffreyharrisonpoet.com.