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Wilderness Ways

Text of Poem

The rabbit knows the hawk is there,
the hawk sees where the rabbit hides,
the wilderness sustains the pair
with no pretense of choosing sides.

Nor does the deer choose hunter’s ways
though hunter tracks a heart to death,
but hunted nor the hunter stays
the talon’s plunge, the arrow’s breath.

First Line
The rabbit knows why the hawk is there
Original Pub Location
Original Publication Date
1965
Original Citation
Commonweal (26 Mar. 1965) 13.
Complete Poems
159
Hearst Collections
Word Count
51
Poetic Form
closed
Themes
Twitter Quote
The rabbit knows the hawk is there, / the hawk sees where the rabbit hides