Orca Rising - Wolf Howling

…. a tragic love story...

Orca Rising, Wolf Howling

 

 

Out on the west coast,

a calm Pacific

glimmers a warm hello,

as the sun sets

on soft sands,

and snowcapped mountains.

As the day light lingers

in ocean shadows,

a pod of Orca

breaks surface,

disturbing the ocean’s blue

with leaping laughter,

while Terns awk, awk,

running on the nearby shore.

 

As I walk these warm sands,

a few stars break the twilight,

I am reminded of the story

Grandmother told me

about our Wolf Clan cousin,

Akhlut, the Orca/Wolf.

 

When the world first formed,

Orcas once walked the lands,

but always could be found

around water,

swimming, splashing, playing,

with dolphins and whales.

But one orca fell in love with

one of our wolf ancestors.

Her name was Selkute,

‘the woman who loved stars’.

 

When the Gods decided

to make Orcas part of the seas,

Akhlut rebelled,

refusing to leave the shore

and as his skin began to dry,

Selkute cried

at his demise.

The Gods took pity

turning him into half Orca,

half Wolf,

so he could swim the wild seas,

and howl at the moon

with Selkute.

 

As Grandmother told this tale,

I thought how everything is connected,

part of a whole,

but how it is love

that is the glue that holds

this connection together,

as well as how we depend

on each other to live,

and go on with life.

This is both the balance,

the beauty,

as well as the harshness of life.

 

Though, as the story goes,

much of the harshness is

made not from the balance,

but the ugliness in life.

Akhlut lost his Selkute

to the spears of hunters,

a needless event,

since they left her to rot

on the bloodied earth.

In his grief, each night,

Akhlut would look to the stars,

hoping to see her there.

Ever since, all Orcas

would surface

and turn their eyes

to the night skies.

 

AztecWarrior/redzone (started) 4.13.18

(finished) 5.6.18

 

Note: this was going to be Poem #13 for the

National Poetry Month, but I got lost and could

Not find the words, or my way home, until today.

Author's Note

...thanks for reading... Akhlut is part of Inuit mythology, but my story about the orca/wolf is my own story and not a part of this legend...

Reviews

[Alexis Turner]

There's a really interesting story here, but some of the meter seems a bit fractured. I don't know if this was your intention. Some of the lines have really great flow, but others are a bit choppy. Like I said, I really like the narrative you paint.

[redzone]

thanks for your comment Alexis.... perhaps I should have written this as more a prose poem especially with these more "storied" poems...

[Lyn Anderson]

This is a very beautiful story. You bring it back artfully to our world and all its imperfections.

[redzone]

thank you deeply for your comment Lyn, it means a lot to me...

[Lyn Anderson]

It really is a gorgeous poem.