By Yvonne Higgins Leach
for Cora
“Honoring Meadowbrook” is about a moment when my daughter, new to the area of North Bend, took me out to view the elk.
Up against the wetland forest
where bands of light fuse with frosty grass,
the bull’s crown of points cuts the sky
like a lapidary cuts stone.
My daughter, new to this small town,
has found the meadow where the elk herd thrives.
This birthplace of the Snoqualmie Tribe.
This Hyas Kloshe Ilahee,
their “great good land.”
Close enough, we see the bull’s exhalation spill
into visible air, others lay their bodies
of thick smooth fur into the earth,
and some graze to fatten up
for the harsh winter ahead.
No haunting bugle, no ritualized rut,
just benevolent existence—
this first witnessing together
of what is holy.
What cannot last
is still a blessing.
The minute we drive away
we make room for this
new song in our hearts.
From Yvonne: “Honoring Meadowbrook” is about a moment when my daughter, new to the area of North Bend, took me out to view the elk.
This poem appears in Yvonne’s new book just released by Kelsay Books titled “In the Spaces Between Us”.
