Poem as Parable
Consider this untitled poem:
What calm in the way the gravedigger unbuttons his coat and the frozen ground below him How it longs to be opened You learn not to wave at the soldier coatless always wandering the roads and fields He’s home now for good says his mother Yes home now for good say the wolves Tommy Archuleta, Susto (The Center for Literary Publishing, Colorado State University, 2023)
The pages of Susto offer short poems in short lines, often unfurling in couplets, offering spare glimpses into loss, grief, mystery. “What calm” arrives three pages into this remarkable collection. On first read, I felt that something elusive, ghostly, had passed through me, but what? I read the poem again. And then again.
So much here, so briefly. On a day so cold the ground is frozen, a gravedigger, instead of hugging himself for warmth, “unbuttons his coat.” Why this gesture? Is it because, like the ground of the grave, which “longs to be opened,” the gravedigger is opening himself to the cold of grief that opens in a survivor relinquishing someone to burial?
And what to make of the soldier who appears next, “coatless always / wandering the roads and fields”? Three times cold has gripped this frugal tale—in the frozen ground, in the gravedigger’s unbuttoned coat, in the soldier’s coatless state. And then this: “He’s home now / for good // says his mother.”
Home now for good.
No need to wave at this soldier; he’s the spirit of a man brought home from war for burial. No wonder “You learn not to wave” at him.
The wolves who appear at the poem’s closing clinch the meaning of home now for good. They know the scent of death. Wolves once followed the trail of ancient hunters. They knew the hunt would culminate in death.
For me the wonder of this poem—of the other parable-poems in Susto—is how spare the poet’s tale, how richly the lines open to repeated readings, how evocative the language of loss.
About the Author
Santa Fe’s seventh Poet Laureate, appointed in January 2024, Tommy Archuleta is a poet, musician, mental health therapist, and substance abuse counselor for the New Mexico Corrections Department. Susto was featured in the November/December 2023 issue of Poets & Writers as part of the magazine’s annual 5 Over 50. Archuleta holds a lectureship at the New Mexico School for the Arts. He lives and writes on the Cochiti Reservation.
Note
Avoid the big A. Purchase your books from independent presses and bookstores.
Susto is available here ⇒


What a way to start a cold December morning - a surprise indeed. I don't know how I missed this poet in the 2023 5 over 50.
I don't buy books from the big A - thanks for the link to the publisher,