Saturday, December 4, 2021

With Awakened Eyes

 


You were
my guardian,
my soulmate,
my most hilarious companion,
my deepest joy,
and, when you died,
my everlasting sorrow.

What gifts a lifetime brings!
A wild wolf puppy,
who travelled the forest trail
to find me.

You were
all I needed for joy.
You are
all that I know
of heartbreak.

Because of you,
I see animals
with awakened eyes.
Because of you,
I can hear
the suffering
in their helpless cries.


for Shay at The Sunday Muse. I could never resist a photo prompt with a wolf in it. LOL. 

Right now, B.C. is digging out after three "atmospheric rivers" which flooded large areas of the province, destroying major highways and bridges, and flooding several towns where people were evacuated and lost their homes. The worst hit is a large agricultural area, where uncounted thousands of animals, domestic, agricultural and wild, drowned, the ones trapped in factory "farms" dying deaths of unimaginable terror. So while this poem started out to be about Pup, it is because of him that my heart breaks with every animal death, all these years since 2011. I didnt know I had so many tears in me. But animal lives are hard because of humans, so there is a lot of scope for grieving.


15 comments:

  1. Pup is the love of your life, certainly. Like my Sundance, they changed our hearts and our lives forever--they are integral to who we became, and we owe them a debt that can't even be added up, let alone repaid. So, we keep on loving them, as strongly as we always have.

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  2. They are irreplaceable, our "soulmates": we never stop missing them but know our lives are richer because they shared theirs with us. Your poem says all that and so much more.
    Pax,
    Dora

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  3. "You are
    all that I know
    of heartbreak."...This touches so deep. Beautiful, Sherry.

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  4. This poem was striking and the follow-on heartbreaking.

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  5. When animals find us ~~ and so the journey begins.

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  6. Ah, Sherry. Those animal deaths are as heartbreaking as the cruelty they endured during their lives. If only we all had a wolf pup in our heart who has taught us how to love all the things that live with us on this crowded planet we treat so obliviously.

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  7. I knew this one would speak to your heart. It is through your connection with pup that you learned a deep compassion for all creatures. A kindred soul for sure who I am sure still watches over you.

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  8. A hear the sadness in your poem loud and clear

    Happy you dropped by my blog Sherry

    Much💜love

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  9. You are blessed indeed to have experienced and realized these things. Wonderful poem, Sherry.

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  10. This poem really touched my heart Sherry. The line of the joy and heartbreak is breathtaking! We learn so much from our animal companions. They are true blessings and their passing is something to grieve indeed. Your beautiful heart has grown bigger with your experiences my friend, and it resonates from your amazing poetry!

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  11. Next best thing to have if we can't all have one from the wilds is a domesticated animal. They too open our eyes though not so much to the wilds. I thought of you when is first saw the photo. Yes, we are their enemies mostly without malice, just greed and they are victims. We need more laws to protect them, not hunt them.
    Sorry for you weather, we see that on TV but mostly oriented towards the state of Washington's west.
    ..

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  12. I feel like all the animals I have shared a life with, are soulmates.
    Protecting their rights has become
    a legal issue. Hope for the best.
    Sorry for the weather.

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  13. Oh what a magnificent gift you were given. It is so beautiful to see with the eyes of nature.

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  14. do you ever wonder what the earth knows. if humans are like her lice, to be washed away, their cruelty at the same time. those caged animals terror - what do we know of the terror of their lives, before and without the flood?

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