Just watched a wonderful short film honoring Barry Lopez whose work I have always revered. That got me thinking about the Earth-affirming poems in my older collections Turtle Blessing, Lizard Light: Poems from the Earth, and The Night Marsh.
These books are out of print now, but I have copies on my shelf, and if you should want to order one (at a discount, of course), you can pm me. I've decided to start sharing some poems from those books (along with any new poems as they arrive), poems that affirm and honor our connection with the natural world and those who share it with us.
Here's one from Lizard Light” _________________
The Hunt
We have begun to see them at the periphery of our vision, scurrying among the shadows in corners we would not enter,
although sometimes we turn, hoping to name the unknown beasts whose luminous eyes gleam as they run by, melting into the air.
They say that when an Eskimo killed a seal, he melted a piece of ice in his mouth, then covered the dead seal's mouth with his own and let the water trickle from tongue to tongue.
Perhaps the animals who brush the edges of our vision, raising the fur on our arms as they rush through the dark, are congregating on some shore to wait for us, mouths open, with wet tongues.
© 1998 Penny Harter from “Lizard Light: Poems from the Earth”