Poem by Terri Glass (www.terriglass.com)
Plea for Wildlife Project funded by Upstate California Creative Corp. Glass’s poetry will be on display at the College of the Redwoods Del Norte campus October 2 – 31.
Swoosh, voluminous wings, mighty sky dancer,
all black with a white patch under
9 feet of wingspan, you balance on the wind.
Cleanser, purifier of earth,
your orange-pink head remains clean
when you feast on the dead
ingesting flesh, organs, bones.
A regal ruff of feathers adorns your neck
protecting you from the cold.
A prophecy claims you return
to fly with the Eagle
balancing north and south,
bringing all peoples together.
You are the path of the heart
flooding us with memory of times
before man mindlessly began
using DDT and littering the land
with bullets,
poisoning your blood with lead.
Strong, Cher-perhl So-nee-ne-pek*
powerful watcher, Neee’n
one who forges ahead, Poy’-we-son
may you return in great numbers
to fill the sky with hope
that the path of the heart
can rule again.
*Translations in Yurok of three names of condors reintroduced in the Klamath region in northern California