“New Cubs” ~ 399’s new cubs seeing humans for the first time
Grand Teton National Park, 2011
Photographs by Melissa Miller
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7 STARS FOR 7 BEARS
A Praise Poem for our Teton Stars: Mama Grizzlies 399 and 610
By Lyn Dalebout
1. our Bears are numbered
610 and 399
a daughter and her mother
five cubs in tow
combined
these Bears were given numbers
the first time they were trapped
marked with ear tags~choke chains
a way of being tracked
2. we’ve watched them trade one cub
traveling
between two moms
sometimes it seems all 7
are functioning as one
3. Bears are sidereal Sagittarians
born in the underground spring
hatched beneath the Earth
in the sign of
vision
birthing the new dream
4. we are blessed by
Bear ambassadors
fierce love and protection
inhabits their souls
Grizzly Mothers
Bear Mothers
in honoring
them
we become more
whole
5. Ursa Major Ursa Minor
7 stars in each heavenly Bear
Ursa Major Ursa Minor
Great Bear and Little Bear
celestial Bears earthly Bears
mirror one another
emissaries
visionaries
~how to live amongst each Other~
6. are Bears days numbered?
indeed
if we ignore their needs
vast room to roam
free
hundreds of miles to move
unseen
our Bears are numbered
so in deeds
we must hold strong
guarding the wildness of territory
more land
that’s what keeps them from harm
7. These 7 Bears
are our 7 Stars
thankfully
~they hold our hearts~
***New dreams to you in 2012***
Lyn Dalebout
deerlyn@gmail.com
Amely Greeven says
Beautiful and moving. Spiritual wilderness poetry at its finest, as always. Thank you so much! Do you think as a collective we are coming out of a hibernation/gestation phase now, moving into action?
Lyn Dalebout says
Thank you Amely, much appreciated coming from you. Interesting you suggest this as I was curious why the bears seemed to stay out later this year. I wondered if in their evolution their need for hibernation might become shorter.hmmmmmmm…just a poetic musing.
Amely Greeven says
I’ve always been fascinated in this idea of the bear gestating while hibernating in the dark winter; for some time during a phase like that in my life, when it was unclear what Self I was, each time I opened an animal totem book, it was to ‘bear.’ I surrendered to the realization that I was in hibernation, and gestating my Self. One day, it felt the hibernation was over, and I started seeing foxes instead ;-)
Interestingly today i looked in the mirror and noticed 7 freckles in the shape of a big dipper around my decolltage as the French would call the neckline. Bear, Big Dipper, Woman, Orion…. nice. Time to shine?