Turtle Island

I could almost love you again.

the man who has the soul of the wolf knows the self-restraint of the wolf

Goal: Clean air, clean clear-running rivers, the presence of Pelican and Osprey and Gray Whale in our lives; salmon and trout in our streams; unmuddied language and good dreams.

that we may see ourselves more accurately on this continent of watersheds and life-communities—plant zones, physiographic provinces, culture areas; following natural boundaries. The “U.S.A.” and its states and counties are arbitrary and inaccurate impositions on what is really here.

WE SHALL SEE WHO KNOWS HOW TO BE

The Government finally decided To wage the war all-out. Defeat is Un-American. And they took to the air, Their women beside them in bouffant hairdos putting nail-polish on the gunship cannon-buttons. And they never came down for they found, the ground is Pro-Communist. And dirty. And the insects side with the Viet Cong.

But the poem was born elsewhere, and need not stay. Like the wild geese of the Arctic it heads home, far above the borders, where most things cannot cross.

The ex acid-heads from the cities Converted to Guru or Swami, Do penance with shiny Dopey eyes, and quit eating meat. In the forests of North America, The land of Coyote and Eagle, They dream of India, of forever blissful sexless highs. And sleep in oil-heated Geodesic domes, that Were stuck like warts In the woods. And the Coyote singing is shut away for they fear the call of the wild. And they sold their virgin cedar trees, the tallest trees in miles, To a logger Who told them, “Trees are full of bugs.

gentle and innocent as wolves as tricky as a prince