out from the  trees. As they move toward the men, an oxymoronic phrase surprises the reader:

And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.

The word darken implies something evil or wrong; however, the horses' pupils enlarge with affection as the they realize that the men are coming into their world.

Ironically, these beautiful horses who appear wild and free are enclosed with “barbed wire” which the men step over. The wire seems so out of place in this natural setting. Filled with the luscious imagery, the poet sees the horses ripple their muscles as horses do. Grazing all day and lonely, they long  for attention. It seems as though they can hardly contain their joy in seeing people. 

The author uses a striking visual simile that registers pure, unvarnished love. The poet compares the touching of the heads of the horses to swans as they bow their heads toward each other forming a heart shape; obviously, the horses love each other. Their loneliness appears boundless, yet when they are together they are at home.

Changing to the auditory senses, the ponies begin munching on little tufts of the spring grass. The slender pony walks to him and nestles his nose in the poet's hand.  The narrator wishes that he could hold her.  Black and white, her mane falls on her forehead wildly. Employing another delightful simile, the softness of the horse’s ear feels as soft as the skin on a girl’s wrist.

Shifting to the use of  the alliterative “b” sounds of the last three line sequence ("body"--"break"--"blossom") gives an allusion of sound to this process of spiritual regeneration. It seems as though the man will "pop" into bloom.

The inexplicable joy of the moment delights the poet because the experience is no longer just a metaphysical scene, but a revelation…he can hardly contain his joy. He feels a part of the world and connected to the moment in time.

"A Blessing" depicts two friends as they interact with ponies in a pasture near the highway. For the speaker, the interaction unfolds from appreciative of nature to emotionally charged. The world around him soon fades away and he begins to view the interaction as something intimate and even transcendent.

James Wright doesn't directly pinpoint one specific blessing within the poem. As with most poetry, much of the meaning has been left up to reader interpretation. While there is no way to be certain of Wright's full intention, his use of the word "blessing" only appearing in the title is telling. This implies that the speaker's experience throughout the poem is the blessing itself, or more specifically, the speaker's unfolding emotional response is a blessing.

Wright also personifies the ponies' behaviors at various points:

They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.

This personification suggests that the speaker is now identifying with them on a personal, even spiritual level. While this doesn't blatantly tell us anything about Wright's beliefs, it does show that the connection felt is powerful, eye-opening, and even joyous at times. Perhaps the experience possesses qualities often associated with a blessing, but in ways that are more spiritual than religious. After all, a spiritual experience is often seen as an incident that awakens and impacts the human soul, uniting one's inner world with the world outside. Throughout the poem, Wright uses imagery and emotion to express humans' crucial connection with nature.

By the time we come to the end of the poem, it is important to note how everything begins. Two friends are driving down the highway and suddenly decide to pull off the main road, jumping a barbed wire fence. Had they continued driving to their intended destination without stopping, the interaction with the ponies wouldn't have occurred. Therefore, their decision to stray from the designated path is significant and must be considered when deciphering the author's intentions and beliefs.

The most useful lines to help us understand Wright's spiritual beliefs might be the last three:

Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.

Without this unplanned interaction, the speaker wouldn't have arrived at this final realization. In these lines, he describes what he is feeling as something that transcends his physical and earthly capabilities, making this the most definitively spiritual moment in the entire poem.

The poem is about looking at two ponies (nature) and feeling transcendent as a result.Many other things are suggested by the language the author uses. For example, the feminine nature.

Feminine nature is a subject in the poem as you can see from the narrator's stating that one pony is a female: "she has walked over to me" … "her mane" … "her long ear / That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist."

Another subject the poem deals with is death. The poet is telling us that when people die they don't just vanish. The image of  stepping out of the body shows us that he feels at one with the pony and nature.He is not just a human being but part of nature. He can transcend his human (body) nature.

Because of the poet's rapturous encounter with nature which seeing the ponies represents, the reader of "The Blessing" can understand that the poet believes in transcendence. In other words, that he is more than a mere mortal. This awareness he has makes him profoundly scared, as if he would "break". He is also feels he has become pure, like a "blossom".

I think the theme could be given away in the poem title 'The Blessing.' It could be read as being about the privilege bestowed on us sometimes by Nature and how we can, and should, not only appreciate it, but give thanks for it.

Perhaps the guys have had a long, arduous, dry dusty road trip. Perhaps they are glad to get out of the acrid, hostile, airless environment and have taken the first opportunity to 'get some air.' They find it is sweet, pure country air that has the fragrance of of twilight grass. Or perhaps it was the horses and the sight of their natural beauty that makes them stop in the first place. Either way, they are grateful for the precious moment to commune with Nature, both to the horses, to nature itself and maybe to God.

'Wet swans' is another simile and makes us think of serenity, the cooling balm of evening dew and silence - the peace and quiet of Nature so different from the frenetic buzz of the highway.

You may like to compare this poem to Robert Frost's 'Two Look At Two.' You can read about that here:

I think that the theme of this poem is that people can and should see themselves as part of nature.  They should not lose touch with the world around them.  We see this in how the narrator and his friend think it's so important to get off the highway and go be with the horses.  And we see it at the end where he says that he could (if he were blessed) break into blossom.

An important simile that supports this is that of the horse's ear and a girl's wrist.  It emphasizes how similar people and animals are and how thin and delicate is the difference between the natural world and people.