Friday, January 17, 2020


A windigo wind
blows across the land,
warning us that we have been taking
more than we need,
and putting nothing back.
It is telling us we need to go back
to the Old Times,
when man and nature lived in harmony,
and no action was taken
without consideration for 
the seventh generation.

A big black wolf is wandering
through my dreams and through my heart,
wolf spirit,
Windigo of the wolf clan,
howling a lament at the destruction
of his habitat,
the starvation of his young,
the extinction
of his tribe.

I am swimming a wide river,
farther than I have the strength to go,
when, under me,
lifts the body of a great turtle,
who supports me to
the farther shore.

I am lost at sea in a thick fog
and cannot find home
when a pod of killer whales,
sensing my distress telepathically,
encircles my boat and guides me to shore,
to my own dock,
then glides silently into the night
and away.

Nature tries to help us.
Creatures show us the way.
But in our noise and clamor,
in the tumult of our souls,
we cannot hear them.

The forest is deep and dark,
and there are spirits here.
I look, and look again,
and all the trees are rearranged.
Shapeshifters, shadows,
flit from tree to tree, 
and a mournful Windigo wind
sings through the branches.

Owl, Oracle, Guardian,
protect me as I go.

One from 2013, for Brendan at Earthweal


  1. Yes so true that nature tries to help us. I like the way your poem mentioned so many natural beings and how they seemed to come along at just the right time to help and/ or show the way.

  2. Indigenous societies belonged to the land -- the way forward was always the way back, and as you say wonderfully, was not embarked upon without considering "the seventh generation." It is precisely why Western civilization cannot proceed without killing everything around it in the name of success. I am so nourished and welcomed and centered by these wolves and killer whales and sea turtles, by the forest canopy of this song. Thanks Sherry.

  3. I love the sound qualities in the phrase 'Windigo wind'. Unless future generations learn to give more back to nature than we have taken, I fear that they will never experience the abundance of this Earth.

  4. "I am swimming a wide river,
    farther than I have the strength to go.." how often that feeling swamps me, especially when I consider the weight of this sixth extinction that goes beyond the personal moment of greed and warps the future. Thanks for this lyric lament, Sherry--as always you speak for those whose voices too few can hear.

  5. Thank you, friends. The young woman I study with about her First Nations culture says in her language, they have no word for wilderness." She says "the only word for wilderness is home." They have strict protocols, by family, around protection of the land in their areas. For example, if they strip bark from one tree for making baskets, they do not touch that tree again for decades, to allow it to heal. Clearcutting must feel an abomination to them - and it is.

  6. In these harsh times Sherry; your words are beautifully gentle and speak to me as you speak for others.
    Nature has a certain resilience and fights back at the horrors we cast upon it, but I fear that eventually it will be swimming a wide river, further than the strength it has to go.
    Anna :o]

  7. This is a beautiful poem and speaks of wisdom. Nature constantly tries to show us the way to survival. We must awaken to the sacred songs.

  8. I think we all need that protection now!

  9. All souls with heart are now like "a mournful Windigo wind". Everyone is on tenterhooks for the coming doom....

