As my previous posts have been quite long and a perhaps even little ‘evangelical’ I thought I would make this last one short and sweet.

Poetry isn’t really my thing but I found the following poem, written by American poet Mary Oliver, and although it’s not about a Moon Bear specifically, I think it’s still appropriate. I hope you enjoy it.

Spring

Somewhere

a black bear

has just risen from sleep

and is staring

down the mountain.

All night

in the brisk and shallow restlessness

of early spring

I think of her,

her four black fists

flicking the gravel,

her tongue

like a red fire

touching the grass,

the cold water.

There is only one question:

how to love this world.

I think of her

rising

like a black and leafy ledge

to sharpen her claws against

the silence

of the trees.

Whatever else

my life is

with its poems

and its music

and its cities,

it is also this dazzling

darkness

coming down the mountain,

breathing and tasting;

all day I think of her –

her white teeth,

her wordlessness,

her perfect love.