28 January 2012

The Wolf is the Thing


PROMPT: Close your eyes and listen to the recordings of wolves at Wolf Park in Battle Ground, IN, near Lafayette. Let your mind wander. What thoughts, images, feelings present themselves to you? When I visited Wolf Park several years ago, I purchased a CD of these howls in the gift shop and used them as an audio prompt at a workshop. Stories emerged with widely varied themes-everything from peace and safety to fear and loneliness. What would happen if you let yourself really howl? I drew on my understanding of the wolf in dream imagery as the animal in us who cannot be ignored, who holds our heart's desire and wrote this...

Called

The wolf is the thing, you know—
that beast brooding in the switchbacks 
of every body's gut. 

He's the one we think will eat us up 
if we let him howl
who turns out to be 
the one who eats us up 
when we don’t.

Let him howl.

1 comment:

  1. Stories emerged with widely varied themes-everything from peace and safety to fear and loneliness.

    ReplyDelete