Homeward Bound

The salmon run—

Hoped for slippery salmon

Silver, Chinook, pink, pinook

Swift to escape net and hook…

Slick swift silver salmon streak

Upstream from Lake Michigan

They find their bed in the river

Where they were new born

with yolk sacks bulging their bellies.

Now mature they leap and flash

Colors of auroras high above them

They leap and splash

past hooks and nets and whirling blades

of boat motors…

homeward bound salmon

to spend it all

their eggs and milt.

                                    --Barbara Spring

My mentors

The Wilderness Within

Basic Instincts

Goslings follow the leader—

waddling after an imprint.

Veed geese fly home

the arctic tern,

the hummingbird,

and bright eyed warblers

fly to their tropical havens.

Lake trout swirl at river mouths

then race upstream.

American eels return from the sea

to freshwater streams.

Undersea

lobsters march in single file—

they know exactly where

they are going.

And we humans also know

where we are going

God’s green imprint is

upon our hearts.

                           --Barbara Spring

excerpted from my book The Wilderness Within

This book is widely available at Amazon.com, bn.com and many bookstores.