Ellen Klaver – On This Mountain
For Le Lion Couchant
I know
where the downy woodpecker nests
each spring, each year
where the old stone wall is half buried under
maple leaves
where secret glacial signatures mark the rocks
where the quiet place the deer drink is
cool and dark, moist green space
where the first birch leaves yellow and fall
where a patch of crowberry, partly hidden, grows
where, last week, dusk, a cooper’s hawk
swooped close
all this given
that i might take
and give back
in the strange, wonderful, and sacred
nature
of ownership
of being owned
the gifts, given and giving,
the sweet dance
Ellen Klaver
November 1984 Earth First!