"Bear" by Mary Oliver
Mar. 25th, 2024 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angledgeThis poem captures the feeling of hiking through the woods & suddenly realizing you are most certainly not alone...
It's not my track,
I say, seeing
the ball of the foot and the wide heel
and the naily, untrimmed
toes. And I say again,
for emphasis,
to no one but myself, since no one is
with me. This is
not my track, and this is an extremely
large foot, I wonder
how large a body must be to make
such a track, I am beginning to make
bad jokes. I have read probably
a hundred narratives where someone saw
just what I am seeing. Various things
happened next. A fairly long list, I won't
go into it. But not one of them told
what happened next -- I mean, before whatever happens--
how the distances light up, how the clouds
are the most lovely shapes you have ever ever seen, how
the wild flowers at your feet begin distilling a fragrance
different, and sweeter, than any you ever ever
stood upon before--how
every leaf on the whole mountain is aflutter.
It's not my track,
I say, seeing
the ball of the foot and the wide heel
and the naily, untrimmed
toes. And I say again,
for emphasis,
to no one but myself, since no one is
with me. This is
not my track, and this is an extremely
large foot, I wonder
how large a body must be to make
such a track, I am beginning to make
bad jokes. I have read probably
a hundred narratives where someone saw
just what I am seeing. Various things
happened next. A fairly long list, I won't
go into it. But not one of them told
what happened next -- I mean, before whatever happens--
how the distances light up, how the clouds
are the most lovely shapes you have ever ever seen, how
the wild flowers at your feet begin distilling a fragrance
different, and sweeter, than any you ever ever
stood upon before--how
every leaf on the whole mountain is aflutter.
