chawing down

 

the draw of the chestnut

a glance out the kitchen window

and there's a dark mass in the yard,

a bear!

not very big, it was probably a cub last year:

beautiful, sleek, compact,

I grab my camera, put on the telephoto lens,

and spend 35 minutes watching it

scout out and munch down

on green chestnut burrs,

coaxing out the not yet ripe nuts,

but close enough to make the effort worth it,

the bear knows I'm nearby

it is alert to quick movement or to sudden sounds,

so I make none,

and he relaxes into peaceful coexistence,

this bear is true to the basic culture of his species in this valley,

humans can be annoying but are not dangerous

or an easy source of food,

food is often found near human houses,

but from trees who don't care who eats the nuts,

I usually stay about 25 feet from the bear,

and make little noise,

make no abrupt movement,

when it approaches 20 feet from me,

I slowly back up to give it its space,

I savor my pictures of it savoring the chestnuts,

my pictures are of it just being itself, and foraging,

later I am down by the creek,

and a black swallowtail butterfly visits a cardinal flower,

I add pictures of it feeding

after those pictures of the bear feeding in my camera,

I wait by the stream

in case the bear wants a drink, a dip, a crossing here,

that way doesn't open,

how extraordinary the last hour has been,

how wonderful the gifts

 of animal,

of plant,

of the song and joy of the stream

that is always there for us

to notice,

to appreciate,

upon which we can center ourselves,

and hold within us 

the bear, and cardinal flower, and butterfly.

by Henry H. Walker

August 20, ‘26

in pursuit of harmony

 

of slope, stream, forest, and us

every time we make our way back to the Smokies,

I intensely feel the call to savor these moments

of slope and stream and forest,

where nature, geology and biology,

are still free enough to remind us

that our dominion over the Earth 

is temporary, limited, illusion,

we need to be slapped awake

like that first shock of early morning air in the winter

or with the brusque reset of our systems

when we immerse in a mountain stream,

we need to be humbled, 

to be put in our place,

and we are, if we open enough,

this house, this home. hard against the creek,

was created by my parents

as a place to fully find ourselves as family,

as a place to build toward community and harmony,

as a place in which the best within us

can work to be true to the best outside of us,

every moment here can open us to glory,

if we're lucky,

we can find that within

that can harmonize with the music 

that is all around us.

by Henry H. Walker

August 19, ‘26

Kodak: "Wear red in the woods!"

 

of the cardinal flower

the last month of summer

has not been a time for us to be here in the Smokies,

for decades we have returned 

to home and work in the piedmont

before August is halfway over,

a bittersweet sign for us to say goodbye to our mountain summer

has been the first appearance of the cardinal flower,

as if following Kodak's advice,

it lives a brilliant red to draw the eye to it,

within a world so green

that the eye can be lost 

within a grand wash of chlorophyll,

we return today to the mountains,

and the cardinal flowers, some of which we have planted,

welcome us with their hellos,

with the clarity and sureness they calmly assert,

it is good to be centered by such a reality.

by Henry H. Walker

August 19, ‘26