In Conversation With Bears

Cherry

By onemorething

Fri, 21 May 2021
  • 1545 reads
11 comments
 

In Russian novels,

there is always an avenue

lined with lime trees,

filed by poets

in conversation with bears.

 

And I have seen the face of one

emerge from bark, its snarl,

the gape of a tree's hollow;

once sharp teeth

lost in moss and lichen.

 

A bear has bones of forest

and snow, blood coursed 

by the twilight that glances

the surface of rivers  - he sings 

to the salmon and they leap,

willing, into his mouth. 
 

It was thought

that bears were born formless,

sculpted to ursine likeness 

by a mother's tongue, and

I think this must be true

of humans too. 
 

The past is bordered 

with lime trees, sticky with pollen,

flowered to bruised to wintered,

all soured by the deaths of bees, 

season after season, and 

 

I will still remark 

that there is an owl nested 

in the clutch of a bear's jaw

because in Russian novels,

everyone is a poet. 
 

 

Image is from here: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Catlin_-_Weapons_and_Physiognomy_of_the_Grizzly_Bear_-_1985.66.563_-_Smithsonian_American_Art_Museum.jpg

Also on Twitter: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Utro_v_sosnovom_lesu.jpg#mw-jump-to-license

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_bear_coming_out_of_his_den,_Russia-LCCN2001697542.jpg

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Comments

Submitted by celticman on

I guess everyone is a poet or peasant or both. 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

I think so! :) 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I gave up before the end of the only Russian novel I tried. Had I known that there would have been poets talking to bears to look forward to I would have persevered. I love the idea that bears are made by a mother's licking, that is such a gentle image. Also your description of bears is wild and strange and beautiful

in the 4th line, is it filed?

 

Submitted by onemorething on

I'm very partial to Russian writing, and fairytales / folklore. And I do love a bear. It was the Ancient Greeks that believed that bears were born as shapeless blobs and licked into bear form. The belief carried to Medieval bestiaries. Am happy you liked my bears - they are magical beasts. Yes, I did mean filed, as in, one walked behind the other. Thanks for reading it and your lovely comment. Rachel :)

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Filed is brilliant, HORDES  of poets :0) Though, filing seems a bit organised

 

Have only just realised, that must be where the term licked into shape comes from? I had always thought it related to the lick of a whiplash as it tends to be overbearing people that say it

 

Submitted by marandina on

"because in Russian novels everyone is a poet." Super poem :)

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks Paul. You can ask your son if all Russians are poets? Let us know. :) 

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

That image of the bear having to be licked into bear form is the best thing I've heard today - and your poem fully does it justice - well done!

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Ha. Good. Yes, it's a lovely idea isn't it. Thanks for reading it. :)

 

Submitted by rosaliekempthorne on

Beautiful and elegant writing with a smooth kind of poetic arc to swing around and capture the trees and poets again at the end. Nicely done.

Submitted by onemorething on

Thank you Rosalie. Really happy you liked it. :)