Hero’s Journey<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
rictus rictus
\ntooth and bone
\nsperm and shell
\nfeather and strike
\nscale and fang
\nflower and thorn
\nskull and socket
\nantler and butt
\ntalon and egg
\nhorn and hoof
\nsand and spine<\/p>\n
The rattler’s hiss down a red boulder
\nbreaks into my waking
\ndream of an elder guiding
\nme along the rim of this canyon.
\nMy true guide shakes to a stop, forked
\ntongue flickering to taste the breeze.
\nThe path on this brink edges me
\ntoward vertigo in the lingo of doves
\nand diamond backs.<\/p>\n
Sometimes to travel one must become still.
\nThis is the hardest journey.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, the necessary travel. One must
\nbecome.
\nThis is the hardest.<\/p>\n
When I take my blood to the desert
\nthere is a river in the desert.
\nDust assembled into current whirling
\naround bone, carried by bone.
\nDown.
\nA name, one name.
\nSurrender.
\nThis petroglyph.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Hero’s Journey” is excerpted from “DESERT RIVERS” and reprinted from Chelsea 60.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Peter Munro\u2019s<\/a> first calling is poetry.\u00a0 Fortunately, he also has a second calling, fisheries science, loved second best but still much beloved plus it provides him a day job.\u00a0 As a poet, Munro has had poems published in a variety of journals, including Poetry,<\/a> The Beloit Poetry Journal<\/a><\/em>,<\/a> The Iowa Review<\/em>, The Atlanta Review<\/em>, The Carolina Quarterly<\/em>, Chelsea<\/em>, The Literary Review (Web)<\/em>, the Seattle Review<\/em>, The Southern Poetry Review<\/em>, Harpur Palate,<\/em> The Crab Creek Review<\/em>, Rosebud<\/em>, and Borderlands<\/em>.\u00a0 Munro is grateful to be a member of the 2013 cohort of the Jack Straw Writer\u2019s Program.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a> As a fisheries scientist, he helps conduct trawl surveys of commercially important bottom fish in the Bering Sea, the Aleutian Islands, and the Gulf of Alaska.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hero’s Journey rictus rictus tooth and bone sperm and shell feather and strike scale and fang flower and thorn skull and socket antler and butt talon and egg horn and hoof sand and spine The rattler’s hiss down a … Continue reading