Tailwind: Poems by a Teenage Naturalist

Chasing Ravens

I wander through the forest
When a flurry of a sound
Cuts through my thoughts like lightning
Echoing abound

The bird that is my namesake
Intelligent and free
Can I live up to your image?
Perhaps someday I'll see

Gauzy rainbow sheen of oil
Rests on plumes as black as night
You're shown through time and literature
To be a bird of fright

But I know you better.
You have had your talons wrapped around my heart.
Since the day I came into this world
You have always been a part

A part of me, within my soul
A bird so black you look blue.
Your quorks drew me into the forest as a child,
And that's where I met you.

You taught me the lessons of your world
Of how to talk to trees
To read birdsong like poetry
And forecast weather from the breeze

Endless hours of meditation,
Because that was our deal
And now when I reach out my senses
The life of the forest is what I feel

This is where I feel most at home
Despite the fact I do not belong
But I cannot help but feel a part of this
Since the day you adopted me with your song

Though largely independent study
I always knew that you were there
Watching me learn to navigate your world
With your intelligent stare

You wear your darkness proudly like a cloak
But mine you cannot see
The fact that I am humankind
Is the darkness from which I can never flee

I am one of those forsaken
By our Mother Earth
But when I am in your forest
Every death has rebirth

Humans hide their darkness
Letting it fester from within
Our weak attempts to plead ignorance
To nature is an ultimate sin

When I trod upon your earth
On this sacred corvid path
I remember your lessons.
I have made it my life's duty
To nurture the Earth's wrath

Though I may be a mere human
I have a Raven's soul
To bring harmony to nature with knowledge
Is my life's goal

I have a Raven's spirit
Gifted to me as a child
I live the life of a human
But my spirit will always be wild

Despite my heart's longing
Never will I fly free
So instead I work as a human
To play with destiny

I try to answer life's questions
By stopping to look around
And reading what the earth is saying
In plant and sky and ground

So now I trod a different trail
Far from my forest Glade
I continue to gain power from knowledge
In hopes that someday
The correct choice is made

The path

I have chosen

The life

I have molded

All stem

From the day

A bird's soul

Joined with mine.

And now,

My life

Is carved

By the day

That I began

Chasing Ravens

And their lessons for humanity.