A narrative of a woodpecker at work on a tree expands to the oneness of all things in Mike Christie’s “Knock Knock Knock”. Here at The Dewdrop, we like the big picture, but we also like the simplicity of smaller everyday things. All of it is inspiring and meditative. And in “Knock Knock Knock” the big picture and the small one converge beautifully. “This poem explores the theme of interconnection through the medium of a woodpecker hitting its head on the tree above a hammock I was lounging in,” Mike explained to The Dewdrop. “Lying there, feeling the vibrations from the woodpecker, I began to explore the larger convergences occurring and my place among them.”
Knock Knock Knock
I am in the hammock looking upward.
A woodpecker lands on the tree supporting my suspended bed
and it does what woodpeckers do
Knocking its head against bark above
Ascending bit by bit
After each series of three hammer-headed attempts.
The tree carries the beak-banging action downward.
Each knock
Yields a vibration
that funnels from limb to branch to trunk to hammock
Softly buzzing through its descent
Arriving at me
I am feeling this
I am an extension of this
This being the knock of a bird beak 25 feet above
This being what the wood conduit of the tree carries
This being hundreds of thousands of years of biological evolution
and growth
and intention
and development
and choice
This being the habitual pattern of another creature
This being what was happening with or without me here
knock knock knock
Once more action is shared
Once more the woodpecker’s choice arrives within me
through the weird way that vibration is external and also not
In the weird way that all of this is external and also not.
knock knock knock
I am what the woodpecker is doing
knock knock knock
Perhaps I am what all this is doing?
There is no great distinction
that confluence cannot question and find resolve
through those moments
that we remember
to step beyond
Mike Christie
Mike, in the words of his late hero Brian Doyle, is a story catcher. Someone on the lookout for meaning and levity. He is a pastor at All These Branches, a progressive spiritual community. He is a care coordinator with Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington. A husband, dog dad, and a friend. A fan of beer, moss, frogs, snails, mushrooms; amongst other things; residing in Spokane, WA. Mike is the proud author of two books. The most recent of which is a work of essays and poems about the common wonders and curiosities of everyday life titled Are We Seeing This which was published in 2022.