Photo by Jim Pankey "WildSpirit"
Jim's Photography can be found at Picasa and Fotothing
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Suggested prompt...
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Jim's Photography can be found at Picasa and Fotothing
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Suggested prompt...
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Describe this scene as if it is the first time you have seen a buffalo.
Imagine yourself a settler in a new and wild America.
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Something inside me feels what they feel; these beautiful creatures larger than I. It’s as though we sense one another’s meaning on this earth. I quiver to think that the huge mass of breathing life is able to feel this fear inside of me. I can’t run; simply stand in awe of this moment. Just look at them, there are so many and here I am, myself, all alone; yet it is me that they are in fear of.
I stand here, in this moment of gaze and I wait for them to turn from me. As the sun begins to set, the last of the many turns to join his herd and a sigh of relief comes over me. I pack my belongings that I had dropped in that first quivering of time and begin walking away when I suddenly feel the earth trembling beneath my feet.
Afraid to look, but with a deep desire to know, I turn my head and the trembling stops. There before me is that last buffalo, standing strong and looking me in the eye. You’d have thought I was full of fear, but I wasn’t. I stood there and in that striking moment, it was as if he was telling me something.
We both turned in the direction of our homes, never to be in one another’s company again. Not again.
It wasn’t until much later when I found this photo in with the rest and I saw that one buffalo, the one that approached me, standing alone, peering in my direction. He must have known that I was stealing a piece from him that day but it was just a small piece. It was nothing in comparison to what the others would do in time.
Looking back on that day, in the beauty of that piece of earth; I recall the serenity, the nature of the setting and wonder if he knew as well as I did that it would not remain. It would not remain.
Simply Heather
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5 comments:
Beast!
Monster, grazing
in the morning light
on grass born
after a bitter winter's end.
The search for food
ends here.
Beast, halt!
Stop where you are.
Now your angry arched eyes
meet the barrel of my rifle,
so release your white flag
of surrender.
Beast, this will cure you.
You'll be cured in
sugar and salt, smoke
to preserve you like
an Egyptian mummy.
Beast, you'll wait
dangling from a meat hook
in a buthcer's shop
for a hunter and a family man
skilled in carving flesh
with a knife
to serve his family.
Beast, it will be your last supper,
but the first of many for
my family,
now that spring is here
and spring has brought the beasts
out to pasture.
Beast, you're mine now.
Far away I feel,
my gilded chair empty,
promises of adventure,
may not suit my comfort.
A woman of privilege,
I fear this open plain,
my eyes widen in disbelief,
animals control my horizon.
Their thunder takes the air,
their presence halts us,
I wonder at this wild land,
strange yet mesmerizing.
Fenceless prairies
and unfettered ranges
of the American Bison
provided human beings with food, shelter, and a naturally beautiful and bountiful nomadic existence in complete harmony in an endless cycle.
Then...
Something inside me feels what they feel; these beautiful creatures larger than I. It’s as though we sense one another’s meaning on this earth. I quiver to think that the huge mass of breathing life is able to feel this fear inside of me. I can’t run; simply stand in awe of this moment. Just look at them, there are so many and here I am, myself, all alone; yet it is me that they are in fear of.
I stand here, in this moment of gaze and I wait for them to turn from me. As the sun begins to set, the last of the many turns to join his herd and a sigh of relief comes over me. I pack my belongings that I had dropped in that first quivering of time and begin walking away when I suddenly feel the earth trembling beneath my feet.
Afraid to look, but with a deep desire to know, I turn my head and the trembling stops. There before me is that last buffalo, standing strong and looking me in the eye. You’d have thought I was full of fear, but I wasn’t. I stood there and in that striking moment, it was as if he was telling me something.
We both turned in the direction of our homes, never to be in one another’s company again. Not again.
It wasn’t until much later when I found this photo in with the rest and I saw that one buffalo, the one that approached me, standing alone, peering in my direction. He must have known that I was stealing a piece from him that day but it was just a small piece. It was nothing in comparison to what the others would do in time.
Looking back on that day, in the beauty of that piece of earth; I recall the serenity, the nature of the setting and wonder if he knew as well as I did that it would not remain. It would not remain.
oooooh, yay - thank you LJ :)
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