Entering the Kingdom
The crows see me. They stretch their glossy necks In the tallest branches Of green trees. I am Possibly dangerous, I am Entering the kingdom. The dream of my life Is to lie down by a slow river And stare at the light in the trees– To learn something by being nothing A little while but the rich The lens of attention. But the crows puff their feathers and cry Between me and the sun, And I should go now. They know me for what I am. No dreamer, No eater of leaves.
Entering the Kingdom - meaning Summary
Attention Meets Animal Distrust
The poem considers a human desire to enter nature humbly and attentively, set against the animals' wary recognition of human power. The speaker dreams of becoming only an observing presence beside a river, but the crows refuse that fantasy. Their alarm reminds her that she remains a potentially dangerous outsider, not a harmless creature of the natural world. The poem asks whether attention can overcome that boundary.
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