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Spring Bear

Today’s poem is “Spring Bear” by Thomas R. Moore. He’s published three books of poems: The Bolt-Cutters (2010), Chet Sawing (2012), and Saving Nails (2016). He currently serves as Poet Laureate for Belfast, Maine. 

He says the poem was inspired by watching bears out his kitchen window.

Spring Bear
by Thomas R. Moore

In the swamp down our hill
I find downed cedars that ping

when I tap them, still solid
for fence posts to keep out 

marauding animals. Last night
a bear, ravenous, pulled down

our bird-feeders to eat
the sunflower seeds while

our terrier roared inside.
This morning the same

bear clumped along the gravel
road to try our garden gate,

knowing by scent what
gates are for, a teen-age bear, 

awkward as a boy first learning
swagger, and crazy with hunger.

Poem copyright © 2018 Thomas R. Moore.