“I have no desire for everyone to work in the same way,” says Doty. “What interests me most is the individuality and vivacity of a voice, a way of seeing and speaking the world.” That voice can come from anyone or anything, as Doty proves in this poem.


The inspiration for the poem is a drawing taped to a drugstore window, along with many others; drawings made as thank-you notes by children who went on a school field trip to the local pharmacy. The poet is walking by the window and stops to look at the drawings, and one in particular strikes him. Brian’s drawing has individuality. It is a typical young child’s drawing, with “balls and lines,/in wobbly crayon,” but the marks still “seem to thrill with life,/possess a portion/of the nervous energy in their maker’s hand.” Something about Brian’s drawing taps into the boy’s life force, and captures the poet’s attention.

The boy has drawn an ice-cream cone that is nearly as tall as he is. His thin little stick arm can hold it up, like a flag, but Brian’s own impression of his strength reminds the poet of how small and vulnerable the child really is. Children are so full of life and imagination that they are super-charged, and what they want to do outstrips what they are able to do. Brian’s joy is contagious, and the poet feels it; that’s what attracted him to Brian’s drawing. He can smile at it, even as he realizes how brief this moment in time, in Brian’s life, in all our lives, is.

Read a biography of the poet Mark Doty at the Poetry Foundation Web site.

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