Owl, Wisdom-Keeper

back yard Port Alberni owl

Sister Owl, Wisdom-Keeper,
sitting in the forest green,

bird-between-two-worlds,

all that we know

and the unseen,

within your cellular memory

live legendary flights

above the nether-world,
bubbling gases,

mist-swirled,
beneath the starry night.

Broad-winged,

you swoop across

canyons now turned
to river-beds,
glide atop the valley floor,
once volcano,
long before.

In your mystic gaze

dwell myth and magic,

legend, mystery,

stories of another time

when Owl and Man were free,

an ancient century ago,
now, in reprise :

those memories are still living

somewhere behind your eyes.

Sister Owl,

Friend of the Moon,
you've come too soon;

harbinger of change,

of mysteries beautiful

and strange,

under your folded wing

you hold the key.

Carve the message

you would tell 

into the bark of 

this old tree,

unlock the ancient manuscript

borne upon your beak

to tell me all

that you would have 

me seek.

Then, Oracle, lead me

into the forest's midnight dark,
I'll carry with me your message,
imprinted on the bark.
Open for me
the double-sided gate,
lead me

where shimmering shape-shifters

and silent, padding wolves
in peace 

await.

Tell me, Owl,

what it is that I must do

to be proved worthy,
if it's not too late

to thus fulfill

my fate.

Well, kids, this one took several attempts. Normally owls send me off into flights of rapture. But I am still light-headed and dizzy, (and not in a good way), so it has been hard to get done all that needs to be done. Sigh. But! Tomorrow is another day!

This is posted for Kim's prompt at Verse First: Owls  Do check out the other owlish links - they are a HOO-t (sorry, cant help it!)

p.s. this prompt reminds me of Nikki Scully's quote: "Owls are the doorway into the unknown." I have written of them before, but wanted to post something new for this challenge.