{"id":4537,"date":"2018-10-17T03:00:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T09:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/?p=4537"},"modified":"2018-10-17T14:16:57","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T20:16:57","slug":"frogs-toads-bats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/2018\/10\/frogs-toads-bats\/","title":{"rendered":"Frogs, Toads, & Bats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
Lyric poet Gertrud K\u00e4the Chodziesner: nom-de-guerre Gertrud Kolmar, RIP<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n<\/br><\/p>\n

Frogs and toads and bats have had a special place in my heart for as long as I can remember. I love these beasties for their diversity, their versatility, their resilience, and for what they represent. <\/p>\n

Beginning about two years ago — for reasons which go far beyond that lovely ghoul-haunted month meaning “8th month,” from the old ten-month Roman calendar, October — my interest in these creatures grew significantly. So that now, even after all the surreal strangeness and surprise and pain and mistakes of the past two years, these little living beasts of beauty remain as pure and pristine and beautiful to me as they ever were. What better time than mid-October to share this absolutely remarkable and pitch-perfect poem, written by an almost-forgotten writer named Gertrud K\u00e4the Chodziesne (1894 — 1943), whose pseudonym was Gertrud Kolmar, a German poet of great power. I love animal poetry — and I’m not speaking hyperbolically when I say that this is truly one of my all-time favorite animal poems. It’s intimidatingly well-observed and evocative and gorgeous, with a delightful nod to Shakespeare in the very last line. <\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

The Toad<\/strong>
\n<\/br><\/p>\n

The bluish twilight sinks with dripping dews,
\nDragging behind its broad, rose-golden fringes.
\nLone poplars stand out black on soft pale hues.
\nA tender birch dissolves to mist-gray tinges,
\nAnd apples roll like skulls toward the furrows.
\nThe leaves, like crackling embers, fade to brown,
\nWhile ghostly lamps peer from a distant town.
\nWhite meadow fog brews beasts within their burrows.<\/p>\n

I am the toad.
\nI love the stars of night.
\nThe coals of sunset, evening’s ruddy load,
\nSmolder in purple ponds, barely alight.
\nBeneath the rainbarrel’s sodden wood
\nI crouch, low, fat, and wise.
\nMy painful moon-eyes wait and brood
\nTo view the sun’s demise.<\/p>\n

I am the toad.
\nWhispering night is my abode.
\nA slender flute stirs
\nAnd sings in swaying reeds and sedge.
\nA velvet violinist whirrs
\nAnd fiddles at the field’s edge.
\nI listen, silent, from my soggy seat.
\nThen, pushing with my finger feet,
\nBeneath the rotten planks I creep.
\nOut of the morass, inch by inch I wind,
\nLike a thought that, buried deep,
\nEmerges from a muddled mind.
\nThrough the weeds I hop and over gravel,
\nA dark and humble sense.
\nOver dew-soaked leaves I travel
\nToward the black-green ivy by the fence. <\/p>\n

I breathe and swim
\nupon a peaceful deep.
\nAnd from the garden’s rim,
\nWith modest voice I peep
\nAmong the feathered night, and rest
\nDefenseless. So be cruel —
\nCome kill me! Though to you I’m but a pest:
\nI am the toad. I wear a precious jewel.
\n<\/br>
\n<\/br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frogs and toads and bats have had a special place in my heart for as long as I can remember. I love these beasties for their diversity, their versatility, their resilience, and for what they represent. Beginning about two years ago — for reasons which go far beyond that lovely ghoul-haunted month meaning “8th month,” … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Frogs, Toads, & Bats”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1209],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4537"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4542,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions\/4542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}