Is the friend with him a man? Doesn’t matter much though, because the friend may not be relevant, or the friend could be very relevant. “We step over the barbed wire into the pasture”. He is stepping over a sharp and dangerous barrier, in order to get closer to the horses. His intentions towards them are coming from a place of love and kindness. Notice he had to step over/overcome something that could cause him pain, and was placed there to bring pain to anyone who would step over. The horses were isolated and lonely, the poet says “we step over the barbed wire” and further states they were “…grazing all day, alone”. He pointedly noted"alone" because he is preparing you to experience a transformation of the state of his heart, which moves in this poem from loneliness to elation, but it is still guarded. Because it is still guarded, and he got a moment of elation in a dark, isolated, barren, and lonely heart. It is “A Blessing”. Stepping over the barbed wire into the pasture is a transition from one side to the other, but i think the transition is deeper than from the human, commercial, industrial world to the natural world, but rather from a mistrustful, lonely, empty, almost totally dark, near death, and painful place to a place that is filled with trusting, sharing, connecting, light, filled with light, peace, and joy.

I respect that last annotation, but I thoroughly disagree. James is not implying that the horses are threatening, or imposing. Their beauty, demeanor, energy, and spirit represent LOVE. James Wright spiritually rides them through this poem for the purpose of you seeing the landscape of his heart, the “BLESSING” is that in spite of the barren, isolated, lonely, wounded landscape that he felt a moment of love, and freedom from the darkness of life without love, and he ends saying he sees how he could bloom if he could come all the way out of that barren darkness he resides. The Darkness, implies, no not implies, but illustrates life without love. This poem is about love, and he transforms from darkness to light and allows himself to open up to love, but not all the way wide open. James clearly still has his defenses up in the end, but he is open as he can get at this moment, because he feels he could burst out of the dark, and bloom. He is most definitely more open than he was before the encounter with love, which is being disguised by the horse model. “Darken with kindness”, is not used to imply anything about the horses really, the horses are merely the vehicle used to describe what you feel when you are trusting and opening to love from a wounded place. A place that has betrayed you before. Mankind has hurt their hearts before when they approached him with kind intentions, or were oblivious to his danger when he approached their state of being in a kind existence, yet, they still are loving, and open to love, hence the use of the word “kindness”, however, there is darkness. For example: with darkness often comes corruption, loss of innocence, anger, fear, pain, and loneliness. This is why later in the poem he goes on to note that the horses were “munching young tufts of spring” in the “darkness”, darkness used in this context represents pain. The common norm in the world, and in the world of love. Mistrust, fear of opening up to love due to past pain, these are dark energies. The horses munching part? James could have said plain old grass, but no! See the grass they are eating, and munching implies carelessly and naturally, is innocent. Even the grass is used as an image to reassert his point of the beauty of existence prior to pain. The grass is tender, young, and free: “young tufts of spring”. Notice later the horse is a she, and she’s black and white. To me he might as well have said, unlike the complex, complicated, multicolored energy that I derived from the girl who broke my heart. This “she” (in the form of a horse) is not good or evil. Back in the era James grew up in, it was not uncommon to hear the phrase, “it’s there in black and white”. This mean it’s simple, plain to see, it’s true, evident, undeniable. She (horse) is humble, loving, graceful, fresh, and nonjudgmental. She is freely accepting his presence, and loving despite her wounds, that he clearly saw in her eyes that “darkened” but still reflected her kindness. James has obviously been very hurt in his heart by someone he loved. Note that shortly after the eyes that “darkened with kindness” line, he went on to having to step over barb wire to get to where the horses were. He is showing you himself, and also showing you an emotional landscape. He had to go over a barrier to get to that place of love. The horses were on the other side. James uses great imagery to mask his point, which further confirms to me that he was writing out of a painful existence, and was writing about love. Because even still, he’s guarded. Look at this please, this brush with “her”, the female horse which is also isolated, wounded and lonely in her own way yet still loving, natural, graceful, forgiving, trusting, and vulnerable caused him to heal. He is in a barren place bridging a gap, and feeling joy, yet, he still guarded in the end. If that doesn’t sound like that is the heart he is describing, than its awesome because yours has never been broken. She is more than a pony! She is his truth in horses clothing! She is a woman. With a true energy of love,and remember, its an energy she emanates, or i should say a vibe she’s putting out, despite having eyes that seen firsthand that it is not uncommon in our world to have kindness reciprocated with pain from a shitty evil spirit that you thought was cool. This graceful, pleasant encounter with the “she” pony with eyes that darkened with kindness, caused him to feel that if he can come out of his self, transcend his suffering, or transcend his own lonely dark existence ( i.e. evolve past his pain, mistrust, fear, and etc.) that he could bloom like a flower. This is why its significant that the horses ear was delicate as a girl’s wrist, a girl is innocent. “darken with kindness” also equates, afraid, but going out on a limb anyway, apprehensive about the appearance of “no more loneliness”, but succumbing to the ideal of being lonely no more, vulnerable but submitting, and wounded but bonding with you who also are wounded in hopes that you won’t ultimately exploit or injure my kindness further still. The horses are not imposing, they are vulnerable. It is a mirror reflecting his heart, and the heart of whoever this new “she” is.

Doesn’t explain the importance of the eyes