The Archer

By Vicki Hearne 1946–2001 Vicki Hearne

The sudden thuck of landing

The arrow made in the mark

Of the center lifted and

Loosened his skin. And so he

Stood, hearing it like many

Thrusting breaths driven to ground.

He abandoned the long light

Flight of arrows and the slow

Parabolas bows dream of

For the swifter song beyond

Flesh. Song of moments. The earth

Turned its molten balance.

He stood hearing it again:

The precise shudder the arrow

Sought and returned to, flaming.

Source: Tricks of the Light: New and Selected Poems (The University of Chicago Press, 2007)

Biography

Poet, writer, and animal trainer Vicki Hearne was born in Austin, Texas, and grew up there and in Louisiana and Mississippi. She earned a BA at the University of California-Riverside.

Hearne is the author of the poetry collections Nervous Horses (1980), In the Absence of Horses (1983), and The Parts of Light (1994), as well as the posthumous Tricks of the Light: New and Selected Poems (2007, edited by poet John Hollander). . . .

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