This beautiful creature above on the trailway
was a four-pointed stag, wary yet brave.
My scent was of hunter though I pos-ed no threat;
my staff being still and voice softly soothing.
Prancing and pawing from left into right,
he closed the distance a step at a time,
testing the air with each inhaled breath.
Ever closer he came; how far would he trust?
Meeting his gaze I saw a change in his eyes.
An ethereal force had entered the stag,
two spirits residing, right then, in one form.
The gaze serene and wise looking right through me,
judging and weighing on some cosmic scale.
What gift to receive if worthy should prove,
That, to this day, I haven't a clue.
Yet hoping sincerely this testing to pass,
wanting to deserve this gift I'd been given,
this encounter with spirit and wildest creature.
The stag kept approaching nearer to me
closing the gap to fifteen short feet,
instinct to flee batt?ling with curious regard
black flashing hooves nervously dancing.
so close I could see individual colors
within his coat so near to my touch.
The wet of his nose and pupil of eye
and nothing betwixt us 'cept mist in the air
and no one around to disrupt the magic.
Regarding now over, spirit left stag.
This testing of souls I seem to have passed
for instinct never hurtled the stag into flight.
Rather, he chose to quietly leave.
Walking off cliff edge into the brush,
a ghost did he vanish with never a sound.
I walked to the last spot in which he had stood
and knew that, this moment, the day could not top;
and so I turned homeward, forevermore changed.
Ambyrhawke Shadowsinger
Copyright © January, 11, 2001 Ambyrhawke Shadowsinger
All Rights Reserved
