I have so many things to write about tonight, that the thought of a coherent blog post strains my imagination. (Can't quit now almost four months into the everyday trick!) I have been reading a lot in natural history and in the life and work of William Stafford, whose son, Kim is also very interested in the natural world. Here is William Stafford's poem:
ROLL CALL
Red Wolf came and Passenger Pigeon
the Dodo Bird, all the gone or endangered
came and crowded around in a circle,
the Bison, the Irish Elk, waited
silent, the Great White Bear,fluid and strong,
sliding from the sea, streaming and creeping
in the gathering darkness, nose down,
bowing to earth its tapered head,
where the Black-footed Ferret, paws folded,
stood in the center surveying the multitude
and spoke for us all: "Dearly beloved," it said.
from Early Morning; remembering my father William Stafford, by Kim Stafford, page 65.
That's all there is, just one short list poem that expands in the middle with the description of the bear and comes to a sudden end. I read it aloud to S and my eyes filled with tears.
One year at the art fair in Petoskey, I bought a carved stone bear, which I keep on the hearth. I remember wishing that its head was a little larger and had a more bearlike shape; I came to see however, that the polar bear does have a tapered head. I could only afford one thing and I bought the bear instead of the large, very costly framed photo of the wolf's head looking right at the photographer and thus at you. I was a little afraid it would haunt me on the wall; and its golden eyes have been haunting me ever since.
I think they are now making some progress with the black-footed ferret, which lives in prairie dog towns and eats prairie dogs, I have read. And life goes on, some of it. I love this world!
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