Poem: Indigo Bunting by Norbert Krapf

So this Poet Norbert Krapf is the former Poet Laureate of Indiana.  Strangely enough one of his books of poetry I once picked up in the Harvard Bookstore.  Despite being familiar with the author, it wasn't until I posited myself here on the 5th floor of the Indianapolis central library near the poetry section that I ended up with more of his words in my hands.

Alas, this, among several others, spoke to me today.


Indigo Bunting

Back when I was
as convinced as only
a young skeptic can be

that I would never meet
anyone to fall in love with

would never wake up
between warm sheets
breathing in unison
with the right woman

would certainly never marry

couldn't conceivably know
the pleasure of looking
deep into the eyes of a son or daughter

I was walking alone along a winding rockroad
in my beloved hills
of southern Indiana.

I was kicking rocks
with my right foot
into dry Queen Anne's lace
in the hot August sun.

A faint whir skimmed
across those flat
tops of snow white.

I looked up just in time

 to see a streak of blue
so pure and sweet
I thought I had never
looked up at the sky.

For the first time,
my friend, I was
ashamed of my certainty.

This blue is for you.



Krapf, Norbert, Somewhere in Southern Indiana: Poems of Midwestern Origins. Time Being Books. St. Louis, MO 1993. Page 45.