The loud tapping drew me to one of the trees in front of our old barn. I knew it was a woodpecker and half expected the dramatic-looking pileated woodpecker by the sound of it. In spring a male usually tapped on the inverted metal culvert, used for drying wood, to attract a mate. This spring a pileated male used one of the house gutters. The woodpecker went up and down the tree making tentative taps. I thought it was going for insects. At one point it kept tapping in some primal urgency. Now I realize it was building a nest.

April woodpecker
deeper and deeper
with each tap

The haiku was first published online in Maine—Penobscot Valley Audobon Chapter Poetry Page (Spring 2009).