Tracy Press

By Ted Kooser
U.S. poet laureate, 2004-06 

Poet Marianne Boruch of Indiana finds a bird’s nest near her door. It is the simplest of discoveries, yet she uses it to remind us that what at first seems ordinary, even “made a mess of,” can be miraculously transformed upon careful reflection.

Nest
I walked out, and the nest was already there by the step.
Woven basket
of a saint sent back to life as a bird
who proceeded to make
a mess of things.
Wind right through it, and any eggs
long vanished.
But in my hand it was
intricate pleasure, even the thorny reeds softened in the weave.
And the fading leaf mold, hardly
itself anymore, merely a trick
of light, if light can be tricked.
Deep in a life is another life.
I walked out, the nest already by the step.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetry
foundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 1996 by Marianne Boruch.

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