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Callaloo 24.3 (2001) 824-825


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from Vol. 19, No. 3 (Summer 1996)

The Great Horned Owl

Clarence Major

He glides, descending
to the forest floor--
his hard face
like an African
mask, carved out
of soft wood.
He glides, descending--
(his face as wide
as his shoulders
with big ears
jutting straight up
like horns)--descending
to the forest floor
where a mouse
is stuck in naked air.
And the wing span
of the great night bird
spreads, showing
his white plumage
in this, his pale phase,
as he snatches the mouse,
scattering dry leaves,
spreading again
those great wings, [End Page 824]
fanning his fluffy
black and white tail

on the take-off



Clarence Major is the author of several award-winning novels, including Such Was The Season, Painted Turtle: Woman With Guitar, Dirty Bird Blues and Reflex and Bone Structure, My Amputations, as well as stories collected in Fun & Games (1990), a new edition of poetry, Configurations: New and Selected Poems 1958-1998 (a finalist for the National Book Award in 1999), and nonfiction, Afterthoughts: Essays and Criticism (1998) and Necessary Distance (2001). He has also edited a number of anthologies, including Calling The Wind: Twentieth Century African-American Short Stories (1993) and The Garden Thrives: Twentieth Century African-American Poetry (1996). He has received numerous awards, among them a National Council on the Arts Award (1970), a Fulbright (1981-1983) and two Pushcart prizes (1976/1990). He teaches at the University of California, Davis.

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