a jauntiness of spirit

wolves!

“There’s something there--down in the stream!”

“It’s a wolf!”

we stop the car and tumble out,

I fumble with the camera,

already fitted with the long lens

and set for a fast shutter,

I snap picture after picture 

as the jaunty black wolf makes her way upstream,


splashing through Soda Butte Creek,

stopping for a quick drink,

a grey wolf follows for a time


and then lies down to relax in the sage,

more and more people stop,

intense with anticipation,

mesmerized by a wolf just lying there,

we’ve lucked upon wolves,

so completely wild that we are as nothing to them,

though, to us, they are vital,

like parks and wilderness,

for all that is not ours helps us know

that we are not all there is

and that we are better 

when we don’t remake all the world in our own image,

that which is wild we can hold in our heart 

and let it feed our spirit,

it can be like remembering to subordinate ourselves to God,

minutes later, up the valley, 

a magnificent young grizzly grubs on the grassy hile near the road,

we gawk and photograph,

later in the day a young male mountain goat

forages and gambols high on the cliffs above the road,

it is hard to hold even a bit of the power of the wild

shared with us today by wolf, ear, and goat,

out spirit joys with their spirit,

as we together remember the eternal.

by Henry H. Walker
June 25, ’13