On Our Morning Walk
We meet a bull elk
calmly chewing
the leaves of a
newly planted
aspen tree. We walk
slowly toward him,
a hundred of us.
I start to panic
knowing it's mating
season and this
900 pound male
is aggressive now.
Brother continues
to lead us closer,
closer, the elk
watches, stops,
but we continue
forward, the elk
looking directly
at us as we walk.
Brother takes the sidewalk
to the right, branching
off. The elk has stopped
eating now, moves slowly
away as if to say,
Good Morning, glad
that we could meet.
Brother Protection, I
am so relieved you
didn't confront the elk
did it exactly right,
a lesson here for me
about feelings and meetings.
(from Retreat and After: A Journal of Poetry on Retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh in Rocky Mountain National Park to be published by Green Fuse Press in 2014
