yesterday at the Oakland zoo
I was walking alone for a moment
past the enclosure holding the sun bear
also known as beruang madu
it looked at me without interest
it has powerful jaws and truly loves honey
it sleeps in a high hammock
its claws look made out of wood
and if it dreams at all it is of Malaysia
home of its enemy the clouded leopard
a gorgeous arboreal
hunting and eating machine
whose coat resembles a python
now it is night and the zoo is closed
some animals are sleeping
the nocturnals moving in their cages
getting ready to hunt nothing
I don’t know why but I feel sure
something has woken the sun bear
it is awake in the dark
maybe it is my spirit animal
I am reading about the early snow
that has fallen on the Northeast
all the power shutting down
the weather going insane
the animals cannot help us
they go on moving without love
though we look into their eyes and feel
sure we see it there and maybe
we are right nothing
can replace animal love
not even complicated human love
we sometimes choose to allow
ourselves to be chosen by
despite what everyone knows
the problem is
in order to love anything
but an animal you cannot allow
yourself to believe in those things
that are if we don’t stop them
going to destroy us
- What is happening in this poem?
- What do you learn about sun bears in this poem?
- Compare the fact that the bear looks at the speaker “without interest” to the level of attention the speaker gives the caged bear, imagining him even after he has left the zoo. What does this contrast suggest about our relationship with the natural world?
- The poem moves from thinking about the bear to the news to the limitations of love itself. What is the speaker saying at the end?
- There is no punctuation in this poem and so it moves in a very associative and interesting way from one thought into another, sometimes shifting unexpectedly as the line breaks indicate turns more than a break in thought. If you were going to recite this poem, where would you place the pauses?
- Write a poem about either an animal that you have seen in captivity (if you can go visit a zoo and study an animal there that is ideal), or take notes while observing any animal that you can and write a poem using your notes.
Useful Links
Matthew Zapruder talks about his role as poetry editor at the New York Times Magazine: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/09/magazine/introducing-matthew-zapruder-the-magazines-new-poetry-editor.html?_r=0
A Rare Glimpse of the Elusive Sun Bear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URnrj9g3HYo
Read our micro-interview with Matthew Zapruder: http://poetryinvoice.ca/poets/matthew-zapruder
Matthew Zapruder, “Sun Bear” from Sun Bear. Copyright © 2014 by Matthew Zapruder. Used by permission of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org
Source: Sun Bear (House of Anansi Press, 2014)