[My mother saw the green tree toad]

By Lorine Niedecker 1903–1970 Lorine Niedecker

My mother saw the green tree toad

on the window sill

her first one

since she was young.

We saw it breathe

and swell up round.

My youth is no sure sign

I’ll find this kind of thing

tho it does sing.

Let’s take it in

I said so grandmother can see

but she could not

it changed to brown

and town

changed us, too.

Lorine Niedecker, “[My mother saw the green tree toad]” from Collected Works, edited by Jenny Penberthy, Copyright © 2002 Regents of the University of California. Published by University of California Press.

Source: Collected Works (University of California Press, 2004)

Biography

Niedecker's verse is praised for its stark, vivid imagery, subtle rhythms, and spare language, which Kenneth Cox described as "whittled clean." Concerned with the distillation of images and thoughts into concise expression, Niedecker described her work as a "condensery," and several critics have compared her poetry to the delicate yet concrete verse of Chinese and Japanese writers. Although Niedecker's long correspondence with

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