Community Poetry Journal

Another H.D. poem, this time from her collection Sea Garden, which you can find on Project Gutenberg.

PURSUIT
What do I care
that the stream is trampled,
the sand on the stream-bank
still holds the print of your foot:
the heel is cut deep.
I see another mark
on the grass ridge of the bank—
it points toward the wood-path.
I have lost the third
in the packed earth.

But here
a wild-hyacinth stalk is snapped:
the purple buds—half ripe—
show deep purple
where your heel pressed.

A patch of flowering grass,
low, trailing—
you brushed this:
the green stems show yellow-green
where you lifted—turned the earth-side
to the light:
this and a dead leaf-spine,
split across,
show where you passed.

You were swift, swift!
here the forest ledge slopes—
rain has furrowed the roots.
Your hand caught at this;
the root snapped under your weight.

I can almost follow the note
where it touched this slender tree
and the next answered—
and the next.

And you climbed yet further!
you stopped by the dwarf-cornel—
whirled on your heels,
doubled on your track.

This is clear—
you fell on the downward slope,
you dragged a bruised thigh—you limped—
you clutched this larch.

Did your head, bent back,
search further—
clear through the green leaf-moss
of the larch branches?

Did you clutch,
stammer with short breath and gasp:
wood-daemons grant life—
give life—I am almost lost.

For some wood-daemon
has lightened your steps.
I can find no trace of you
in the larch-cones and the underbrush.

This poem made me feel the single-minded drive of the speaker to find the person, concept, or whoever they are addressing. I imagined it was a person, at least, who was being chased by some hostile creatures a while back, and now is being tracked by the speaker. It's interesting to me because it's a poem that reads almost like an action scene, but also has a quality of timelessness that I associate with poems. The nature scene feels like it occurs in a capsule and this capsule could be found anywhere. And the strong verbs like "trampled" and the speaker's intense voice from the beginning with "What do I care" also conveys emotions that I think go beyond time and space. c: