Saturday, July 8, 2017

When You Love a Wild Thing




"...you can't give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they're strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky. That's how you'll end up, ...[i]f you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky."

— Truman Capote (Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories)


When you love  a wild thing, 
you're rekindling your kinship 
with the wild. 

Every cell in your body 
remembers 
when you once lived free 
upon the land, 
when you lived the Old Ways 
we once used to 
understand. 

Part of you remembers 
when you hunted the deer, 
and part remembers 
when you were 
the deer being hunted. 
Both sides know fear. 

The part of you 
that catches your breath 
while your heart quickens, 
when that old gray whale 
turns her ancient eye on you, 
is the part that recognizes, 
but can't put words to, 
the message in her 
mournful song, 
about this planetary home 
where we all 
belong. 

I gave my heart to a wolf-pup, 
his eyes intelligent 
and true. 
He loved me more 
than anyone 
I ever knew. 

He remained wild, 
but left both
wilderness and sea.
In order to be with me 
he relinquished 
being free. 

And when it came 
his time to leave, 
he tried so hard 
to stay. 
Since he's been gone, 
it's like the wilderness 
itself 
has gone away. 

Now, when I walk, 
yes, I'm looking 
at the sky. 
I'm listening 
at each full moon 
for his lonely 
cry. 

I walk the length 
of his favorite river 
with tears 
that we're apart. 
But I'm glad 
I loved a wild thing 
because he 
fortified 
my heart.


One from 2011, shared with the Poetry Pantry at Poets United, as well as the Tuesday Platform at Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads. I miss my boy, still.

33 comments:

  1. Loving a 'wild thing' is so rewarding....but to lose a wild thing is heart breaking. I know Pup has claimed your heart and will stay with you forever.

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  2. Sherry. (That's my mother's name.) I love this poem. It's my favorite of yours.

    This, my goodness, is so powerful:

    "Part of you remembers
    when you hunted the deer,
    and part remembers
    when you were
    the deer being hunted.
    Both sides know fear."

    I hope you find him, or he finds you, again --- if only for your eyes to meet, for a second.

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  3. You loved him because he was your soul mate in furry form~
    Hugs and have a beautiful day!
    You always touch my heart with Pup poems~

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  4. Thank you for this gift from your heart to our's.

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  5. First of all I do love that quote (and the book is fabulous), love how your love with a wild thing made you wild. Maybe we need to grow wings to follow the call of the wild.

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  6. Part of you remembers
    when you hunted the deer,
    and part remembers
    when you were
    the deer being hunted.
    Both sides know fear. .. love this part and all your wild wolf-pup poems.

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  7. This poem is so beautiful Sherry. It is not hard to fit into this beautiful world it is a wonder more people don't try.

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  8. To have wilderness so close by and then be deserted is heartbreaking. But Pup is alive in your heart and words. Such a beauty this poem is!

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  9. A special bond beautifully betrayed... I am glad Pup was in your life

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  10. Loving a 'wild thing' is something we should all cherish and treasure, for its loss is truly heartbreaking. Heartfelt write, Sherry.

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  11. The Capote quote is one of my personal favourites. along with the one from The Little Prince: We're responsible forever for what we have tamed.

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    Replies
    1. And sadly once they are tamed and crushed they are longer a challenge or of interest.

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  12. This is so achingly beautiful. I have a thing for wild things as well

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  13. Yay! This was so good that I felt goosebumps reading it through. Great poem!

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  14. Again you created tears from me. Just to think it could happen, a wild thing in your life, the one you loved most of all, and loved you back, as unlikely as it seems, your story never stops being sad for me. And maybe it the same, for anything you love the most in all the world, and loves you back...you tell it "true."

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    Replies
    1. I know your eyes are always on the sky. The clock ticks the minutes and moves forward, but you will wait for him, one day you will resume your "love" right where you left off. That is the myth of "love."

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  15. What a beautiful poem to come back to...coming home to your blog Sherry touches my heart deeply. I agree loving a wild thing can hurt but oh they give us such love....your last line is pure bliss for me!

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  16. "He loved me more
    than anyone
    I ever knew."

    So lucky you are!

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  17. This poem feeds the wildness that makes my bones. It makes smile and nod with remembrance.

    I love the quote, too. Especially what it doesn't say--that when two wild things love each other, the result is unbreakable magic.

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  18. Your words transport me to some special place, Sherry. The last lines, especially, touched my heart.

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  19. So beautiful! Your love so strong and true. It's good to love a wild thing. Hugs.

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  20. Your poems about Pup always go straight to my heart. This one is no exception. I think a love the wild is ultimately about love of ourselves, and all of nature.

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  21. We all are wild things in part. Got lots of wildlife here, not always welcomed but respected.

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  22. Never forget the wild. Thanks for sharing.

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  23. It is the wild in them, that draws us in - with a 'tug' of the heart that tame things cannot stir. Another beautiful piece, Sherry.

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  24. words fail when face to face with the wild, the truly wild, for as you've so beautifully captured, there is recognition - remembrance, even if it is merely a whispering we can only taste - and to love and be loved by a wild is perhaps one of the greatest blessings and gifts that can happen.

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  25. All life is suffering...still, we must not hide from it or our lessons will not be learned.

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  26. Nice rhyme and meter in remembrance of the wolf-pup.

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  27. I always love when you write about your beloved Pup. You both brought such gifts to one another.

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  28. This is gorgeous, Sherry... I'm not sure I have ever felt just this way. Thank you so much for sharing. I feel like I know your Pup a bit through your writings, but this is a different way of expressing the connection, I think, at least for me. xo

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  29. Oh yes, what glory it is to love a wild thing. In recent years I came to love a deer. He came antler proud to the woods behind my house and we would stand and watch one another. I took in his freedom and he took in my love to see him free. It broke my heart when he stopped coming.

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