Chard deNiord is the author of four books of poetry, The Double Truth (U of Pittsburgh P, 2011), Night Mowing (U of Pittsburgh P, 2005),
Sharp Golden Thorn (Marsh Hawk Press, 2003), and Asleep in the Fire (U of Alabama P, 1990). His book of interviews with senior American poets, Sad Friends, Drowned Lovers, Stapled Songs, is scheduled to appear in the fall of 2011from Marick Press. His poems, interviews and essays have appeared recently in Best of The Pushcart Prize, New England Review, Best American Poetry, Hudson Review, American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, The Southern Review and Salmagundi. He is an associate professor of English at Providence College and lives in Putney, Vermont with his wife Liz.
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Crows
The crows were talking in the pines.
How they reveled in rudeness,
half laughing, half crying
as they told the truth straight out
again and again, as if all the world were deaf.
It was a strange, ironic love that kept them aloft.
Turned each insult into a dark new feather.
Mr. Handsome
A blue jay with a haircut
at the feeder turned to look at me.
“Nice hair cut,” I said
and he flew away.
As for me,
I let my hair grow down to my shoulders.
But no matter how I wore it, short or long,
I was always “a sight” to him.
I spoke.
He flew.
Again and again.