The Bigness of Small Poems – # 2 in a Series – Heidi Garnett

Canadian Poet Heidi Garnett

Crane
 
Red-winged blackbirds
sway on willow branches.
Air bends to accommodate
the slight weight. 
Day dies in the west.
The crane, rune for soul, 
spears a minnow with its dark eye.
The soul’s hunger is small,
but precise.   

Heidi Garnett, 2016, With Permission of the Author

I am a sucker for poems with soul mentioned in them. How we try to use metaphor to describe what, in the case of the soul, appears indescribable. This small poem by Kelowna poet Heidi Garnett turns the soul into a crane. Never thought of the soul that way! That’s what poetry is for.

The soul as a patient, fierce hunter. I like that image. A bit unsettling but that’s even better! My soul as a crane. That focused, that persistent. So often in my life I forget the importance of small things. I love this idea that my soul does pay attention to the small stuff!

Big thanks to Heidi Garnett for sending me her poem after I asked her if she might have something for me to include in my National Poetry Month series of small poems. Her second full-length poetry collection, Blood Orange, is coming out this Fall through Frontenac House, based in Calgary. This will be a book to put on your must-have lists for 2016.