Poetry | Excerpts from Aerie

By Dan Butterfass, January 6, 2025

From the cover of Dan Butterfass' Book of poetry, published by Shipwreckt Books.

Hunting the Sun

Hiking the autumn forest with my father
Breathless shouldering both our heavy packs
Through a tonic of rich and deepening color
The labor of sustaining our love somehow
Grows lighter with the swiftness of time
He moves more slowly than I remember
Yet I am content to let him take the lead
Study his shadow in motion over the earth
While kettles of migrating broad-winged
Hawks soar on afternoon thermals
Thousands streaming above the ridge
Hunting the warmth of the sun

Dog Spirit

Weary of every pursuit, poetry and life stale
What helps most is to take a drive with Oshie
A yellow Labrador who rides on her haunches
Muzzle twitching out the passenger window
Seining the wind’s secret trove of scents
Supple velvet ears flopping aloft as she kisses
Joy in the moment without consideration
My canine companion in love with the world
Peering out as if every common bird in flight
Opens an immense world of delight

Cranes

Twilight on Easter morning I was excited
To show my 19-year-old daughter
A pair of mating sandhill cranes
Shale feathers soft as woodsmoke
Scarlet head patches like embers
As they leapt their courtship dance
Through a mist of vernal snowmelt
By the time we quickly drove back there
Like her whole childhood the cranes
Were drifting away into the willows

Root River Current’s coverage of the arts is made possible, in part, by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.

Contributor

Dan Butterfass

Dan Butterfass holds an MFA in poetry from the Vermont College of Fine Arts; he’s made his living as a college English instructor, freelance outdoor writer, bookshop proprietor, and entrepreneur in the field of tourism. His debut collection of poetry, Aerie, was published by Shipwreckt Books of Winona in May 2024 and spans a quarter century of his writing life. Dan has lived in Rochester with his wife, Ellen, for the past three decades, where they have raised three children. When not working in the Med City, he lives in a two-room cabin on forested land in the blufflands of southeastern Minnesota.