There's a bear in the Truro woods.
People have seen it __ three or four,
or two, or one. I think
of the thickness of the serious woods
around the dark bowls of the Truro ponds;
I think of the blueberry fields, the blackberry tangles,
the cranberry bogs. And the sky
with its new moon, its familiar star trails,
burns down like a brand - new heaven,
while everywhere I look on the scratchy hillsides
shadows seem to grow shoulders. Surely
a beast might be clever, be lucky , move quietly
through the woods for years , learning to stay away
from roads and houses. Common sense mutters:
it can't be true , it must be somebody's
runaway dog. But the seed
has been planted , and when has happiness ever
required much evidence to begin
its leaf-green breathing ?
__ Mary Oliver
(Truro, near Cape Cod. Massachusetts, USA)
- The Truro Bear and Other Adventures
Poems and Essays
Mary Oliver
Beacon Press
Boston
People have seen it __ three or four,
or two, or one. I think
of the thickness of the serious woods
around the dark bowls of the Truro ponds;
I think of the blueberry fields, the blackberry tangles,
the cranberry bogs. And the sky
with its new moon, its familiar star trails,
burns down like a brand - new heaven,
while everywhere I look on the scratchy hillsides
shadows seem to grow shoulders. Surely
a beast might be clever, be lucky , move quietly
through the woods for years , learning to stay away
from roads and houses. Common sense mutters:
it can't be true , it must be somebody's
runaway dog. But the seed
has been planted , and when has happiness ever
required much evidence to begin
its leaf-green breathing ?
__ Mary Oliver
(Truro, near Cape Cod. Massachusetts, USA)
- The Truro Bear and Other Adventures
Poems and Essays
Mary Oliver
Beacon Press
Boston
painting by: George Catlin (1796-1872) portrait of a grizzly bear and mouse
