Rise up, wolf, from your rocky ledge,
Rise up from among the sitka and juniper
As your ancestors did, carrying across the sea,
O’er the path of the Bear, the seed of your species,
Exchanging teeth for men, settling in among the Snow,
White flakes falling into the Youthful North, into the Earth;
A messenger become, bearing patiently a word that will never fail.
And the earth shatters. From your place where,
Tranquility was the name given to the wind, the needles
That covered the trees, the leaves on the shrubs (even
The rocks were imbedded with your peace, like mineral veins
Beneath a crusty skin), go forth and meet your kin,
Go to the cave of the crows, and the earth will shatter again.
From the days of the Golden Fleece, pursued by Jason,
Into the heart where you hid it, in the House of the Father,
You have been sought after, as a man seeks
The heart of a woman whom he cannot live without,
By friends of Caesar, by the kings of the north;
But fighting them all back,
You bear your teeth, and the earth shatters.
The Son of Man comes and with him, purification.
The Beloved builder is followed by the Palm Tree,
And with her came art, literature, science, beauty;
But the earth is still shattered. Your borders,
Still heaving from the quaking breaths of the mountains,
Still chilled by the icy lakes above,
And where is the peace you left behind?
Far in the distance,
Below the glaciered edges of ice,
Rising up from the Warm Spring,
The Black Cliff littered with hornbeam, ash, birch;
As the sun hits the trees in the afternoon, they
With trunks like red crosses tall in the white snow
Reach as if trying to touch, far in the distance
The Good Water, as if to ease their sadness,
As if to wash away the blood;
Far off, beneath the young, starry sky
A river glistens.
And memories do not fade easily; scars
Disappear only after a great amount of time,
But there is healing in a life learning
To leave the past where it is,
Instead, giving hope to the future.
In the west, among the hemlock and spruce,
In the shade of the rocky waterfall,
Where the natives tell legends of bridges and spirits,
A memory is born again;
The palms wave near the water and a huge distance is crossed,
The earthy hand of a friend clasped forever.
And a song rises faintly on the slopes of the mountain:
Forever patient, a word that will never fail.