John Taggart is a poet and critic whose work spans volumes of poetry, including Music: Collected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2010), a book on Edward Hopper, and a collection of essays. A minister’s son born in Iowa in 1942, he grew up in small Indiana towns. Educated at Earlham College and the University of Chicago, he received a PhD from Syracuse University and afterward directed an arts program in the English department at Shippensburg University from 1969 until 2001. Taggart lives in the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania.

Orange Berries Dark Green Leaves

by John Taggart

Darkened not completely dark let us walk in
    the darkened field
trees in the field outlined against that which is less dark
under the trees are bushes with orange berries dark green leaves
not poetry’s mixing of yellow light blue sky darker than that
darkness of the leaves a modulation of the accumulated darkness

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