Newsletter sign up

Be the first to know when new American Life in Poetry columns are live.

Column 020

The Woodpecker Keeps Returning

Intro by Ted Kooser
08.17.2005

In this fas­ci­nat­ing poem by the Cal­i­for­nia poet, Jane Hir­sh­field, the speak­er dis­cov­ers that through pay­ing atten­tion to an event she has become part of it, has indeed become insep­a­ra­ble from the event and its impli­ca­tions. This is more than an act of empa­thy. It speaks, in my read­ing of it, to the per­cep­tion of an order into which all crea­tures and events are fit­ted, and are essential. 

The Woodpecker Keeps Returning

The woodpecker keeps returning
to drill the house wall.
Put a pie plate over one place, he chooses another.

There is nothing good to eat there:
he has found in the house
a resonant billboard to post his intentions,
his voluble strength as provider.

But where is the female he drums for? Where?

I ask this, who am myself the ruined siding,
the handsome red-capped bird, the missing mate.

Share this column

Disclaimer

We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Jane Hirshfield, “The Woodpecker Keeps Returning” from After. Copyright © 2006 by Jane Hirshfield.  Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Inc. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.