My neighborhood book group met last night. It was a cold walk though the stars and moon lit the sky. Talk is often of the local wildlife, who has seen a bobcat, coyote or fox, and the rare mountain lion sightings are also shared. I've lived here 34 years. This is my place.
Spirit of Place: Great Blue Heron
Out of their loneliness for each other
two reeds, or maybe two shadows, lurch
forward and become suddenly a life
lifted from dawn or the rain. It is
the wilderness come back again, a lagoon
with our city reflected in its eye.
We live by faith in such presences.
It is a test for us, that thin
but real, undulating figure that promises,
"If you keep faith I will exist
at the edge, where your vision joins
the sunlight and the rain: heads in the light,
feet that go down in the mud where the truth is."
~ William Stafford ~
(on a plaque in Portland's City Hall, for Portland's city bird)
(The Way It Is)
