Wagoner, David

United States, (b. 1926)

The Orchard of the Dreaming Pigs

  1. As rosy as sunsets over their cloudy hocks, the pigs come flying
  2. Evening by evening to light in the fruit trees,
  3. Their trotters firm on the bent boughs, their wings
  4. All folding down for the dark as they eat and drowse,
  5. Their snouts snuffling a comfortable music.
  6.  
  7. At dawn, as easily as the light, they lift
  8. Their stlll-blessed souse and chitlings through the warming air,
  9. Not wedging their way like geese, but straggling
  10. And curling in the sunrise, rising, then soaring downward
  11. To the bloody sties, their breath turned sweet as apples.

© David Wagoner. Traveling Light: Collected and New Poems. University of Illinois Press (1999).

Judging a Hog

Adapted from The Elements of livestock Judging
— W. W. Smith (1927)

  1. He must be observed from both sides and the front
  2. and from above while you are standing close
  3. at a rear view. The common defects: light hams,
  4. pinched loins, rough shoulders, and knock knees.
  5.  
  6. You determine the depth of fat with your firm palm
  7. pressed up or down or in. The hair should be fine
  8. and straight, lying flat. The head should be light
  9. and the skin soft, no tendency to wrinkling.
  10.  
  11. His ears are never silk purses. Above the neck
  12. is all cheap meat and waste, the smaller the better.
  13. All parts are salable, but a broad, chunky,
  14. strongly arched back, smooth, regular, deep sides,
  15.  
  16. and a trim, straight underline are the most
  17. desirable – chest full, forequarters squared,
  18. legs wide apart. The worst: a heavy paunch,
  19. a waisty belly curve, and a fish back.
  20.  
  21. You will find some hogs impatient with your judging.
  22. Some will show signs of indifference to breeding.
  23. Some will exhibit uncharacteristic feelings
  24. of assertiveness and a disregard for the orders
  25.  
  26. of their owners, rings in their noses notwithstanding.
  27. Remember you have ribbons at your disposal
  28. and the power to redeem sinners. Don’t be misled
  29. by a pink two-hole snout slippery with mucus
  30.  
  31. and speckled with sawdust. It is irrelevant
  32. in all your judgments. In spite of what you may feel
  33. surging against you sideways or lunging forward
  34. at the end of a leash, the toss of a thick skull
  35.  
  36. or the heft and fortitude of testicles
  37. the size of udders, you make careful notes.

© David Wagoner. Traveling Light: Collected and New Poems. University of Illinois Press (1999).

PIG DANCE

  1. This pig would rather not ,
  2. even think about it,
  3. would rather just stand still
  4. four-square or flop down
  5. gradually on one side
  6. or the other and let whatever
  7. wants to happen
  8. happen to an old sow
  9. who has seen far better days
  10. go by, some slowly,
  11. and some much, much
  12. more slowly, who has never really
  13. supposed her hind trotters
  14. could put her up to this,
  15. though she was born believing
  16. in the power of firm hams
  17. and the even more surprising
  18. resiliency and unforeseeable
  19. twistiness of her tail
  20. whose subtly tufted end
  21. knows all about misdirection,
  22. and just look – her snout can be pointed
  23. up at the clear sky
  24. and be held there, kept held there
  25. while all the rest of her
  26. inimitable figure rises
  27. to the vertical and sways
  28. and swivels just long enough
  29. to wriggle around and prove
  30. she can do whatever she wants to
  31. for a sweet while, at least,
  32. can trot around and about
  33. and make music out of mud.

© David Wagoner. Redactions: Poetry & Poetics. Issue 12, Jun 22, 2011. What Happened to the Lyric? – Guest Editor Rob Carney.
OR
 © David Wagoner. After the Point of No Return. Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press (2012).

About the Poet:

David Russell Wagoner, United States, (b. 1926), is a poet, novelist and educator. He has taught at the University of Washington, Seattle, since 1954, currently teaching in the low-residency MFA program of the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts on Whidbey Island.

Wagoner has created twenty-four exquisitely crafted poetry collections and ten acclaimed novels. Two of his books have been nominated for National Book Awards. Wagoner was editor of Poetry Northwest from 1966 until 2002 and was elected chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, serving 1978 through 1999. [DES-12/21]

Additional information:

  • Here is Wagoner’s novel, Whole Hog. Boston, Little Brown, 1976.

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