Can anybody help me understand the poem "Heat" by Hilda Doolittle?

First of all, there are several ways to analyze poetry in
order to understand meaning.  I think if you bainstorm answers to a few preliminary
questions, you might be able to come up with an explanation of your own that not only
makes sense, but is entirely plausible.

This poem is short,
it seems to lack an obvious external scene, the
speaker's exact identity does not seem to be entirely important,
and it it written in free verse.  All of these poetic qualities
force this poem (and you the reader) to rely on images in order to
ascertain meaning.  Therefore, a few questions you should answer
include:

1. What main images are used in the poem?
   Hint: heat and fruit; what else do you
   see?


2. On face value (or on first reading) what
   might these images represent?  Give obvious answers here, often poetry plays
   off of actual things occuring in the real
   world.


3. What symbolic
   meaning could these images represent?  Hints: consider emotional
   connections to heat: anger, passion, energy.  Consider standard literary symbolism of
   fruit: it often represents new life, rebirth, and fertility.  It seems in this poem, the
   heat is preventing the land from being fertile.  What deeper meaning could this have? 
   What might exist as heat, preventing newness?  Then, what might "wind" represent (as the
   hero who rids the scene of the
   heat)?

This poem is ambiguous, it is
true, which means you are allowed to bring your personal experience into your
interpretation and analysis (the beauty of poetry!).  I might also encourage you to read
a little about H.D., who lived during both WW1 and WW2, and was reported to be a
bi-sexual.  Perhaps you could include such information in your analysis.  However you
decide to approach it, don't over-think it, and spread the work out over a few days.  I
imagine you'll get a little more out of the poem each time you read it.  It is a great
one.