17 Comments
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Kassi Wilson's avatar

I love this wild poem 🐺

Poetry Outdoors's avatar

Thank you my friend! I love the Mary Oliver one too and that unexpected turn towards the women walking in the wilderness at the end.

Maya Sarin's avatar

Beautiful, Ash. Those last lines of your poem are simply stunning! ✨

Poetry Outdoors's avatar

Thank you Maya, so glad you could feel and hear the howl of those last few lines! Would love to read your version of this week's prompt too :)

Melody Aminian's avatar

This is lovely. I just started reading this book, The Comfort of Crows about a year of backyard observations. Looking forward to slowing down and immersing myself.

Poetry Outdoors's avatar

Thank you, Melody! I have that book on my reading list, isn't that book cover so gorgeous? Curious to learn what that book teaches you about slowing down and paying attention to the living world around you.

Catherine's avatar

Love that last sentence, can feel that in my bones...

Poetry Outdoors's avatar

Love how deeply that last line resonated, Catherine!

Ethan Kreul's avatar

“the air cools and grows a set of teeth” is a strong

Poetry Outdoors's avatar

Thank you Ethan!

Andy Smith's avatar

“I felt the darkness come in on hindsight legs”, what an interesting and surprising line. I love this piece! Also, I hadn’t read that one by MO before, always appreciate reading new poems of hers.

Poetry Outdoors's avatar

I have been trying to write a piece about that felt sensation of hearing coyote's howling, especially when they are so close and something about Mary's poem opened a new portal for me to write more animalistic haha. Love that it resonated, Andy!

Abbie Shanahan's avatar

Ok is it sacrilege to love your poem even more than Mary Oliver's here?

Abbie Shanahan's avatar

Because I could not separate myself from..(gestures wildly), this is is the poem that emerged this week: https://abbieshanahan.substack.com/p/peninsula

Sofia St.'s avatar

Thank you so much for the prompt, I loved it! I’m brand new to substack and this was a great introduction- will definitely be joining in again. Mine did not end up mentioning wolves, but it was directly inspired by both the Mary Oliver poem and yours (and it got to be a part of my live gig this weekend as a spoken word piece, so grateful for the inspiration!). Here it is, my Wild Thing. https://sofiastreet.substack.com/p/wild-thing?r=jd1nj&utm_medium=ios

Lizart's avatar

It was so fun thinking about this poem all week, tweaking it, and now sharing it!

Thank you, Ash (and everyone else sharing and commenting)✨

Here is the poem I wrote: https://lizrubando.substack.com/p/callings-of-a-past-life

Amy Brunvand's avatar

This is actually an old poem, but one that responds to the prompt nonetheless https://amybrunvand.substack.com/p/species-transplant?r=3aadnk&utm_medium=ios