snack time
on the summit of Jumbo Mountain
crashing thunder
a bear bowls
one boulder into the next
leaves a tasty ant nest
open to sky
my bones almost register
the hard crack of rock on rock
Tag: bears
wonders
This is in response to a prompt from Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s webinar Nature as Inspiration and Transformation: An Intro to Nature Poetry: make a list of three questions you wonder about and could look up the answer to. Write a poem about these wonderings.
wonders
wondering where the shaggy black bear sleep
and whether I’ll come upon one this spring
laid in a heap of fur bone sinew
next to a boulder somewhere
his mat of fur the only thing marking him
as different from duff
wondering where the calypso orchids are waiting
held in the earth’s warm heart
and when they’ll stretch their soft pink throats skyward
and what the boys will say
wondering how it feels to dive
like a male broadtail
or sleep ten hours
like my beloved sons
wondering whether Roxy the fox
has a dry safe earth
with a quiet writhing of new life beside him (or her)
all awake
today I wondered where are the deer?
hours later they pronked across the trail before us;
a bit of magic reaffirming what I believe
about life the universe and everything:
it gives us what we need
when our arms and minds stay open
denning bears
denning bears
tonight we will sleep
each in our own places
the deep slumber
of denning bears
so warm in our thick black coats
in our cozy hollows
of thick white snow
where no wind stirs
we will dream
calm safe dreams
of honey in unguarded hives
and salmon that jump
into our open mouths
trusting that when winter
eases its grasp
and it’s time to
muscle our way
out of the drifts
the sun will be there to warm us
the roots will be ready to nourish us
and our ancestors have already made
clear paths we can follow
to finally drink fresh water
and feel the crisp clean air
settling deep into our lungs
until all our old stale breaths
are wrung right out
yes, you and I,
each in our quiet den,
a mountain or more apart,
we trust implicitly
that there will still be a world
worth waking for
and our cubs will be
just fine
Deer, Flowers, Ducks, Bear Tracks, and More!
Several days ago we noticed a female mule deer just next to the driveway! I got out, and using the car as a blind, was able to get several photos. Also, on a hike to Lily Lake yesterday I found a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and on the lake several Ring-necked Ducks. We have also had several additional sightings of Townsend’s Solitaires, and found more bear tracks coming back from Lily Lake. Additionally, on the return trip from the lake, we found a wild parsley that I took close-ups of. Here they are!
Bears and Buena Vista
Yesterday we took a trip down into Buena Vista, where the weather was a lot warmer and there were different birds! We saw a Yellow Warbler, my first in a while, and a yellow form of a Pine Siskin, along with a Wyoming Ground Squirrel. Before that, however, we saw a Ruby-crowned Kinglet in our driveway. I managed to get a photo that shows the kinglet’s crest, rarely visible. On our way back from Buena Vista, we got quite a surprise. On the road in front of us was a Black Bear! It turned and ran, so I couldn’t get any direct photos of it, but Cedar found some fresh tracks that I got shots of. Two of the photos have my hand in them for comparison. Here they are!
