The Search for Lost Lives

By James Tate b. 1943 James Tate

I was chasing this blue butterfly down

the road when a car came by and clipped me.

It was nothing serious, but it angered me and

I turned around and cursed the driver who didn't

even slow down to see if I was hurt. Then I

returned my attention to the butterfly which

was nowhere to be seen. One of the Doubleday

girls came running up the street with her toy

poodle toward me. I stopped her and asked,

"Have you seen a blue butterfly around here?"

"It's down near that birch tree near Grandpa's,"

she said. "Thanks," I said, and walked briskly

toward the tree. It was fluttering from flower

to flower in Mr. Doubleday's extensive garden,

a celestial blueness to soothe the weary heart.

I didn't know what I was doing there. I certain-

ly didn't want to capture it. It was like

something I had known in another life, even if

it was only in a dream, I wanted to confirm it.

I was a blind beggar on the streets of Cordoba

when I first saw it, and now, again it was here.

Source: Return to the City of White Donkeys (Ecco Press, 2004)

Biography

James Tate’s poems have been described as tragic, comic, absurdist, nihilistic, hopeful, haunting, lonely, and surreal. His many poetry collections include The Ghost Soldiers (2008); Worshipful Company of Fletchers (1994), which won the National Book Award; Selected Poems (1991), which won the Pulitzer Prize and the William Carlos Williams Award; Distance from Loved Ones (1990); Constant Defender (1983); Viper Jazz (1976); and . . .

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