POETRY |
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Wild Welcome
by MJ Moore
(after reading "Little Horse" by W. S. Merwin)
Welcome to the wild, Little Horse,
to our forest of pathless trees, waterfalls, treacherous slopes. We warn you— you will find no safety here, familiar as you are with farm, stable, and stall. No water trough or feedbag of oats. No warm, pungent blanket hanging on a hook. We soak in storm, freeze in snow, blister in relentless summer. No one brushes coats or offers an apple. Stumble on a root, and your flesh will feed families of red fox. But everywhere you turn your unhaltered head, sun flickers among leaves, clearings revel in rich grass. Shade meanders through branches cloaked in moss. Endless rivers careen off boulders, splash steep banks, carve out green canyons that whistle in the wind. You will never drowse through days of sameness here. And you can never be lost, where everywhere is home. |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MJ Moore lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her various incarnations have included technical writer and editor, grassroots environmental activist, first grade teacher, poet and flash fiction writer, wife, and mother. Strongly bicoastal, she thrives on salt air, wind and waves, but also loves mountains, deserts, forests and streams. Writing for her is a source of vision and joy.
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Vistas & Byways Review is the semiannual journal of fiction, nonfiction and poetry by members of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at San Francisco State University.
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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State University (OLLI at SF State) provides communal and material support to the Vistas & Byways volunteer staff.
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