WHERE I'VE BEEN

photo by S. Auberle

No place like it--for mountains, glaciers, reindeer;
the ever-present bush planes, bears, (didn't see
a one) moose (saw one from the train, near a
mall in Anchorage) eagles (an abundance of
them) though, as someone said: you can never
see enough eagles and whales; humpbacks;
orcas; native art; seals; and the light, the incredible
midnight sun...

to see an eagle flying across the face of a blue glacier
changes a person...

The great sea
has sent me adrift
it moves me
as the weed in a great river
Earth and the great weather
move me
have carried me away
and move my inward parts with joy

- Uvavnuk, an Eskimo woman shaman
celebrating the joy of nature

Poems will come, I hope, for now this
woman's words says it all.
- mimi