Benson Bobrick

The Archer
 
He bent his bow till both ends met
just in a circle at his ear, 
then shot: the arrow sang: it set
its course aloft into the black
and million starry spangled sphere.
Up, up it sang, its perfect track
was straight, toward what fixed star it flew
or falling star, its head appeared
(though who could follow it were few)
a star itself to our rapt view.
            
But he, soon as that shaft came clear, 
stripped straight-grained branches from the yew                   
for arrows with the surest cut,
and fitted them against his ear, 
and hitched his sacred quiver up.

Benson Bobrick earned his doctorate in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University.  His many books have been featured on the front page of The New York Times Book Review, widely praised in both academic and popular journals, and published in translation in over twelve different lands.  In 2002, he received the Literature Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  Two distinguished poets, Galway Kinnell and Robert Pinsky, served on the award committee that year.  He lives in Vermont.