Jeremy Nathan Marks is an American who came to Canada 7 years ago to gain a new perspective on living in North America. He has since gotten married, adopted 2 rescue dogs, become a permanent resident, and begun exploring what it is he went to Canada to find. Poetry has become Jeremy’s means of grappling with the social, ecological, and philosophical concerns that have influenced the course his life has taken and the professional path he has chosen. Visit his website.
The Way of Bear
By Jeremy Nathan Marks
Our great lake is two large palms
cupping a wayward bather
and millions of sidling fish
The wind is mayflies
I am thinking
I think
of bear
When the sky is bluest
and the martins circle
and the swallows lift from air
June’s thorax
Bear becomes more than paws and their limbs
but the buckle of forgetful now
and the beginning
Bear is now
And any dreams that I possess
any half-awake time past noon
wandering by the lake
or skirting the wood berries
This is at the sufferance of bear
She is my benefactor
and I
a little lord
of nothing
whose soft feet
and dewy hands
really are not my own
these passing colors are
because of bear.
