A Calendar of Hares

Anna Crowe

1. At the raw end of winter
   the mountain is half snow, half
   dun grass. Only when snow
   moves does it become a hare.

2. If you can catch a hare
   and look into its eye
   you will see the whole world.

3. That day in March
   watching two hares boxing
   at the field’s edge, she felt
   the child quicken.

4. It is certain Midas never saw a hare
   or he would not have lusted after gold.

5. When the buzzard wheels
   like a slow kite overhead
   the hare pays out the string.

6. The man who tells you
   he has thought of everything
   has forgotten the hare.

7. The hare’s form, warm yet empty.
   Stumbling upon it he felt his heart
   lurch and race beneath his ribs.

8. Beset by fears, she became
   the hare who hears
   the mowers’ voices grow louder.

9. Light as the moon’s path over the sea
   the run of the hare over the land.

10. The birchwood a dapple
    of fallen gold: a carved hare
    lies in a Pictish hoard.

11. Waking to the cry of a hare
    she ran and found the child sleeping.

12. November stiffens
    into December: hare and grass
    have grown a thick coat of frost.