why i feed the birds
by Richard Vargas
once
i saw my grandmother hold out
her hand cupping a small offering
of seed to one of the wild sparrows
that frequented the bird bath she
filled with fresh water every day
she stood still
maybe stopped breathing
while the sparrow looked
at her, then the seed
then back as if he was
judging her character
he jumped into her hand
began to eat
she smiled
a woman holding
a small god
From Guernica, revisited, published by Press 53.
Copyright © 2014 by Richard Vargas.
Reprinted with permission.
Read this and other poems by Richard Vargas in Guernica, revisited, available for purchase online.
Most of us probably remember those times when some elder or parent first passed onto us their reverence for the natural world. Often, it’s not until we grow older and mature ourselves that those scraps of memory return in full and vivid detail, bringing back that first moment when wonder came to life, suddenly close at hand. Richard Vargas tenderly recreates one such instance in this poem, and he offers the simple yet layered scene of a gentle older woman holding out seeds to a common sparrow, who finally decides to eat from her hand. We sense his grandmother’s presence fully in those last two lines—“a woman holding/a small god”—and feel the child-like awe that can be so easily ignored, buried by years of forgetting the sacredness of everyday life and our surroundings. As Naomi Shihab Nye has written: “Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.”
Invitation for Writing & Reflection: Describe one of your first memories of encountering the natural world, perhaps while fishing, camping, or hunting with an elder. When did nature first come truly alive for you, “shimmering” in its realness and beauty?
ABOUT THE POET: Richard Vargas
Richard Vargas was born in Compton, CA, attended schools in Compton, Lynwood, and Paramount. He earned his B.A. at Cal State University, Long Beach, where he studied under Gerald Locklin and Richard Lee. He edited/published five issues of The Tequila Review, 1978-1980, and eleven issues of The Más Tequila Review, from 2010-2015. His first book, McLife, was featured twice on Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, February 2006. A second book, American Jesus, was published in 2007. His third book, Guernica, revisited, was published April 2014, and featured on Writer’s Almanac. Vargas received his MFA from the University of New Mexico, 2010, where he work-shopped his poetry with Joy Harjo. He was recipient of the 2011 Taos Summer Writers’ Conference’s Hispanic Writer Award, and was on the faculty of the 2012 10th National Latino Writers Conference. Currently, he resides in Wisconsin, near the lake where Otis Redding’s plane crashed.
POETRY SELECTION AND COMMENTARY BY JAMES CREWS
James Crews is the author of four collections of poetry: The Book of What Stays, Telling My Father, Bluebird, and Every Waking Moment. He is also the editor of two anthologies: Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, and have been reprinted in Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry and featured on Tracy K. Smith’s podcast, The Slowdown. James teaches at SUNY-Albany and lives with his husband in Vermont.
Thanks to hundreds of readers who have given donations big and small, Gwarlingo remains ad-free. Donors who give $50 become members. If you love Gwarlingo, please consider giving back.
