Unspoken Landscapes

The realm of the wolves

Photo by Thomas Bonometti on Unsplash

Now from my place of a safe harbour.
I sought to know something more of my internal landscape
I encamped to rest
That by silence, in a peculiar way I might see all of life, at once.
But only when not directly looking.

There at the lakes and weirs, mighty rivers and meandering billabongs,
Howling to the full-moon,
Wolves gathered.
Silhouetted by the blaze of my burning fire,
Forever amazed at the two-legged animal and its conduct.

And on that beautiful moonlight night,
I could recognise their unspoken words,

Summoning, evoking —

“Like a general in the field
not abreast of all the elements for victory,
I have won many lands
raising to the ground all that did not go under the yoke.
— Yet felling me to my knees.

My mantle I could carry not a moment longer.
Too heavy, that weightless thing.
My finery, robes, costumes,
fell off, wouldn’t fit.
— Just like the emperor with no clothes.

Trance,
my pre-dispositions,
and chemical — neural reactions —
to know, do, feel, think, of past / present / future.
— In prison, but not a prisoner.

After those endless droughts
came the rains
just as my tears
overwhelming
— even the stoutest walls.

Just as the shackled bids farewell to his jailer,
I left known people and places
in fear and trepidation.
Yet asking
— “what’s wrong with right now if I don’t think about it?”

Knowing me
before I know myself
original underlying wholeness
but a gossamer breadth away,
— I begin spinning lead into gold.

Now,
embodying my most vile temperaments
free
to get or get not, manifest or no
— wild mind embracing.

No longer fraught
by a self yet to be attained,
a place, a height not reached.
Much lost and gained. Loving and being loved at no limit.
— I stand beginning, an expression of life.”

Like the call of the wild

That pack of wolves
Did lead me.

Further and further
Nearly to the source of those waters.

Where unknown things called out, as did beloveds.
In that place, I found to be true for me—

“My heart
breaking,
in a way
I wish it would never stop

— now and in all moments of existence.”

If you’d like, you can get the whole poetry book FREE and see this poem in place within the story of The Dance of The Wild.