The Thought-fox

I imagine this midnight moment's forest: Something else is alive Beside the clock's loneliness And this blank page where my fingers move. Through the window I see no star: Something more near Though deeper within darkness Is entering the loneliness: Cold, delicately as the dark snow A fox's nose touches twig, leaf; Two eyes serve a movement, that now And again now, and now, and now Sets neat prints into the snow Between trees, and warily a lame Shadow lags by stump and in hollow Of a body that is bold to come Across clearings, an eye, A widening deepening greenness, Brilliantly, concentratedly, Coming about its own business Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox It enters the dark hole of the head. The window is starless still; the clock ticks, The page is printed.

art & creativity free verse

The Thought-fox - meaning Summary

Creativity Takes Animal Form

The poem imagines the act of writing as a fox's cautious approach through a midnight forest. At first, the speaker faces an empty page and a sense of isolation. The fox gradually becomes more vivid and certain, then enters the speaker's mind, where it becomes the completed poem. Creativity is presented as an alert, instinctive presence that arrives on its own terms.

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