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Patricia Kirkpatrick grew up in Des Moines and graduated from the University of Iowa and San Francisco State University. She has received awards from the NEA, the Bush Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Loft-McKnight and the Jerome Foundation. She teaches in the MFA program at Hamline University, and has also taught and conducted workshops at Macalester College, the Princeton Theological Seminary and the Loft. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with her family.

I was particularly drawn to this poem of hers, because I knew I could actually see the source of her inspiration. After reading the poem, scroll down to see a picture of the Spirit Horse in question.

after the Haniwa Horse, Japan, fifth century A.D.

to outline the bells on your rump, your tail

as stiff as a tusk, the shoulder holes tuneling to

emptiness inside you. When the dead depart,

your legs loped and tubular as beach kelp.

The children look up from their brief seat

creature to press against your clay muzzle.

- "Letter to the Spirit Horse," by Patricia Kirkpatrick, from her collection of poems title 

. Reprinted here with permission from the publisher.

Image courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

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