Chard deNiord
Heron
Even now in the dark, as if in a dream,
I see her rise from off the marsh into the clouds
from which it seems she takes her color
before she fades to a speck and then the deep
inscrutable blue that craves her wings
for the feel of them is all, or so it seems
in the sky behind my eyes where she remains
aloft as a cynosure of Earth I could never
have imagined without seeing her first
ascend like that, then fly away.
Chard deNiord reads “Heron”
Chard deNiord is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Bestiary (Bridge Press), In My Unknowing (University of Pittsburgh Press 2020) and Interstate (U. of Pittsburgh, 2015). He is also the author of two books of interviews with eminent American poets: Sad Friends, Drowned Lovers, Stapled Songs, Conversations and Reflections on 20th Century Poetry (Marick Press, 2011) and I Would Lie To You If I Could (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018). In 2000, he co-founded the New England College MFA Program in Poetry in Henniker, New Hampshire, where he served as program director until 2007. He is a Professor Emeritus of English and Creative Writing at Providence College and essay editor at Plume Poetry. From 2015 to 2019 he served as Poet Laureate of Vermont. He lives in Westminster West, Vermont with his wife, Liz.