Whooo

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

Tonight the barred owls

ask their question upon

the chill of dusk;

one from the tulip poplar grove,

the other at creekside.

“Whooo?”

Is what they want to know.

“Whooo?”

It’s a dangerous inquiry.

A warrior’s initiation right

if you dare seek the answer.

Do you dare?

Do you dare to know

who you truly are?

Coyotes run the crest of the ridge,

yips and howls

formulating the collective voice

of the pack.

Don’t listen to them,

they are tricksters.

This is what I have to say:

If you go searching for the

answer,

you will Die.

And if you don’t go searching

for the answer,

you will die.

If you want to Live,

you must go searching

for the answer.

The moon will light the way in the darkness,

but only so much as to allow

you to take one uncertain step

at a time,

often, backwards.

You’ll find that what the sun illuminates,

is frequently outsized by its

shadow,

and that the shadow has a life of its own.

You are going to have to

befriend it,

as your fellow journeyman.

Be prepared to leave who you

think you are behind

in the quest for

authenticity.

It’s best if you put down the large bundle

of “what no longer serves”

at the trail head.

Do bring your most spectacular heartaches

and your deepest wounds;

these are the trail markers that

will help you stay on course.

And too, have within you

a most

beautiful verse.

You cannot fully understand who you

are until you have courted the

Beloved with such wild abandon,

that you become completely undone.

“Whooo?”

from the top of the tallest pine.

“Whooo?”

from the sycamore at the edge of the meadow.

“Who?”

from the moment you were born,

has been the question

gifted by those who

want you to find your way

Home.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author

Published in "Sacred Reciprocity: Courting the Beloved in Everyday Life" and "Wild Life: New and Selected Poems

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