little cat feet?

 

like shadows

bears appear, and disappear,

in a moment,

I rarely even notice,

one moment they're not there,

then they are there,

then they're not there,

they remind me of Carl Sandburg's line 

about the fog coming in as if on little cat feet,

bears are large in body,

and in commonality to us,

but they move through their world,

and often through ours,

as if of no more substance than a passing breeze,

as if cloaked by their introversion,

I love to snap awake

and realize an important visitor has come

to share our world for a time,

and I subordinate my agenda 

to the new clerk of the meeting,

a day later and I sit down by the creek writing of Dolly Parton,

my wife hollers at me from the porch

as she is setting the table for supper,

I look to my right, 

and the great bear, maybe 400 pounds,

who has shared this valley with us for at least 10 years,

calmly walks to within fifteen feet of me,

looks at me for a moment,

and then matter-of-factly chooses another way across the creek,

showing me his backside,

I love that this huge bear has found how to coexist with us,

and still be true to who he is.

Huge bear in cabin yard a previous year

by Henry H. Walker

August 25, ‘26