How to See Deer


by Philip Booth

Forget roadside crossings.
Go nowhere with guns.
Go elsewhere your own way,

lonely and wanting. Or
stay and be early:
next to deep woods

inhabit old orchards.
All clearings promise.
Sunrise is good,

and fog before sun.
Expect nothing always;
find your luck slowly.

Wait out the windfall.
Take your good time
to learn to read ferns;

make like a turtle:
downhill toward slow water.
Instructed by heron,

drink the pure silence.
Be compassed by wind.
If you quiver like aspen

trust your quick nature:
let your ear teach you
which way to listen.

You've come to assume
protective color; now
colors reform to

new shapes in your eye.
You've learned by now
to wait without waiting;

as if it were dusk
look into light falling:
in deep relief

things even out. Be
careless of nothing. See
what you see.

The poem begins with stripping one of what one might want to prepare themselves with when searching for deer because it is assumed that one would be hunting, and if not hunting then would need a gun for protection. Guns and road crossings represent the civilization you are leaving behind in order to enjoy nature the way it should be enjoyed. "Expect nothing always," is said as if nature that will abundantly be surrounding you at this point when you are submerged in the woods is nothing, when really it's so much. It's ironic because you wouldn't expect the author to feel this way so maybe he is saying this trying to see things the way you (the audience) would. "Read the ferns" "drink the pure silence" "be compassed by wind" these are all words we wouldn't associate with the other but indicate a different way of taking in what surrounds us. When it talks about the colors and shapes changing and learning to wait without waiting it reveals that you have transformed to how one should see nature. "things even out" might mean that you are more accustomed to your surroundings now so that when there is the presence of an animal you can spot it more easily. It's interesting that the poem never talked about the actual deer or why you'd want to see it just that you will, and you don't really realize that until the end, as the poem closes with, "see what you see."

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19783