Larry Schug, Poet

Larry Schug is the author of eight books of poems–Scales Out of Balance (1990), Caution: Thin Ice (1993), The Turning of Wheels (2001), Arrogant Bones (2008), Nails (2011), At Gloaming (2014)and A Blanket of Raven Feathers (2017) all published by North Star Press of St. Cloud, Minnesota, and a chapbook, Obsessed with Mud, published by Poetry Harbor, Duluth, Minnesota. Caution: Thin Ice was a 1993 Minnesota Book Award finalist and Arrogant Bones was a 2008 Midwest Book Award finalist. Larry has won two Central Minnesota Arts Board Individual Artist awards, a 2014 Central Minnesota Arts Board Established Artist award and a 2008 McKnight Fellowship for Writers award. Larry lives beside a large tamarack bog with his wife and their dog and cats in St. Wendel Township, Minnesota.

Larry's Books

A Blanket of Raven Feathers

At Gloaming

Nails

  Arrogant Bones

  The Turning of Wheels

  Caution: Thin Ice

  Scales Out of Balance

  Obsessed with Mud

More Information

When a Jenny Wren

or a tiny yellow warbler
mistaking the reflection of trees
in your window
for a passage through the woods,
hits the glass with a terrible thud,
like a dying heart's final beat,
rush out your door,
gently cup the dazed little flyer
in your warm hands,
whisper words of comfort,
tell the quivering little singer
how beautiful it is,
how honored you feel in its presence,
how sorry you are it was deceived
by a reflection in your house's windows,
remind it we are all fooled
by images of ourselves.
Hold the bird in your hands a while,
hold it in your heart forever.
When the light returns to its eyes,
release it with a blessing,
the way a song is released
from the strings of a strummed guitar.