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[Selena]

Wife Hits Moose - Thomas Lux (Brown, 206)

Sometime around dusk moose lifts
his heavy, promordial jaw, dripping, from pondwater
and, without psychic struggle,
decides the day, for him, is done: time
to go somewhere else. Meanwhile, wife
drives one of those roads that cuts straight north,
a highway dividing the forests

not yet fat enough for the paper companies.
This time of year full dark falls
about eight o'clock - pineforest and blacktop blend.
Moose reaches road, fails
to look both ways, steps
deliberately, ponderously... Wife
hits moose, hard,

at slight angle (brakes slammed,
car spinning) and moose rolls over hood, antlers -
as if diamond-tipped - scratch windshield, car
damaged: rib-of-moose imprint
on fender, hoof shatters headlight.
Annoyed moose lands on feet and walks away.
Wife is shaken, amazed.

-Does moose believe in a Supreme Intelligence?
Speaker does not know.
-Does wife believe in a Supreme Intelligence?
Speaker assumes as much: spiritual intimacies
being between the spirit and the human.
-Does speaker believe in a Supreme Intelligence?
Yes. Thank You.


Brown, Kurt. Drive, They Said. Minneapolis: Milkweed, 1994
reprint by permission © by the author.


It isn't that man is the only animal capable of realizing, reasoning, in but the smallest way, his or any existence, but man is the only animal capable of un-recognizing his place in the scheme of the universe; silly humans. An old Indian once said to me, 'life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.'

This particular work reflects a part of the puzzle we continuously, often violently, try to understand, that we may distinguish ourselves from our environment. The opening lines of the poem by Thomas Lux, "Wife Hits Moose" sets the stage for the entire poem, and provides all of us with an invaluable lesson in the simplicity of the life we often wish to complicate; if we can but hear it.

Sometime around dusk moose lifts his heavy, primordial jaw, dripping, from pondwater and, without psychic struggle, decides the day, for him, is done:

"...Without psychic struggle," what a unique concept! How often; if ever, for the majority of us; do we accidentally live without psychic struggle?
Grappling with perceived guilts from the past, plotting and scheming, fighting tooth and nail for our piece of the nonexistent future; prayers and dreams and sleepless nights spent pondering. Worrying ourselves into heart attacks and strokes; so hungry for recognition or, acceptance or, peace-of-mind; we willingly subject ourselves, and our children to lifetimes of agony over belief systems that provide us with the remorse necessary to continue on in the circle of ignorance.

"... Without psychic struggle......" 'Oh my, what a wonderful piece of poetry John; and by the way, I see that George, at the Conoco station has raised the price of his gas by 4 cents a gallon, you know we could go up 2 cents and still under cut him.' This is without psychic struggle too you might say, yet the struggle already took place, the battle fought, lines drawn between combats, and the enemy is us. Whereas the moose moves through
the entirety of its life without the struggle, we tend to struggle till we reach some arbitrary decision, then; partially, and somewhat grudgingly; allow things to go as they may. It reminds me of the adage, 'Let the chips fall where they may.' Really now, hadn't you set up the chips to begin with?

Annoyed moose lands on feet and walks away.

What would the odds be of this moose nursing a grudge or, complaining to his comrades or, even thinking about the incident five minutes after it happened? My guess is, zero to none. Does the moose take it personally? No. Does the moose gather a herd, and attack the nearest settlement of the two-legged interlopers? No. Yet how often have humans nursed grudges for hundreds of years, lying in wait, to visit atrocities upon the heads of the descendants of their enemies, unto the seventh generation? We are a peculiar species.

-Does moose believe in a Supreme Intelligence
Speaker does not know.
-Does wife believe in a Supreme Intelligence?
Speaker assumes as much: spiritual intimacies
being between the spirit and the human.
-Does speaker believe in a Supreme Intelligence?
Yes. Thank You.

Rather presumptuous for us to believe that a Supreme Intelligence would consider humans as being worthy of being intimate with, rarely being intimate with one another without looking for payment. An intelligence of this sort would hardly be supreme, or intelligent now would it?

Does this writer believe in a Supreme Intelligence? Yes. The moose.

[Selena]

I had made reference to this poem in another thread, that I often remind myself "be the moose". For me it's an anology for several concepts that are mentioned in the poem.

Things like don't take it all so seriously. I love the statement that is made about "accidently living". I know with myself I often get caught up in thinking too much about living to actually live. Or talking too much about living to actually live. Or working for a living too much to actually live. On and on... rather than just simply letting it be and living. "without psychic struggle" Oh, love that statement also! Mostly this is a reminder to me to get over Myself. I realize I often tend to take myself much too seriously.

And on that note I've got some living to do.
Be Well,
Selena

[Terri R.]