<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><span class=""><font color="#0a0a0a" face="HelveticaNeue" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(76, 76, 76);" class="">Wild Places </span></font></span></div><div class=""><span class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(76, 76, 76);" class=""><font color="#0a0a0a" face="HelveticaNeue" class=""><br class=""></font></span></span></div><div class=""><span class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(76, 76, 76);" class=""><font color="#0a0a0a" face="HelveticaNeue" class="">When wild places go,</font></span></span></div><div class=""><span class="">we are all lost,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">a little piece</span></div><div class=""><span class="">of every bear,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">of every human</span></div><div class=""><span class="">living in the gray tenement</span></div><div class=""><span class="">in the faceless city,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">every insect</span></div><div class=""><span class="">whose name we have never learned.</span></div><div class=""><span class="">Something slips away from us,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">like an exhaled breath,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">never to return,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">and, as with breath,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">one gone is immaterial,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">a thousand slipped away insignificant,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">until there comes a point</span></div><div class=""><span class="">when we know</span></div><div class=""><span class="">we have few more left.</span></div><div class=""><span class="">Of course I mourn each extinguishing</span></div><div class=""><span class="">like the loss of an old friend</span></div><div class=""><span class="">with whom there are stories</span></div><div class=""><span class="">I will never get to share,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">but my loss is trivial</span></div><div class=""><span class="">compared to that of the rhino</span></div><div class=""><span class="">who will never have a place</span></div><div class=""><span class="">to raise her young,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">to the redwood</span></div><div class=""><span class="">whose first millennium of preparation</span></div><div class=""><span class="">will be all for naught,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">to the wind</span></div><div class=""><span class="">who no longer finds the muskox</span></div><div class=""><span class="">turned to face into the storm,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">yet longs for the touch of fur,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">the meeting of an old friend.</span></div><div class=""><span class="">When wild places go,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">we go,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">one cell at a time,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">but this is not just our dance,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">not just our game to play.</span></div><div class=""><span class="">Ours is but a bit part,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">a supporting role,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">and yet we have come to believe</span></div><div class=""><span class="">we should take center stage.</span></div><div class=""><span class="">No, I say,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">let us go back,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">back to being just another faint voice</span></div><div class=""><span class="">in the cacophony of life,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">back to there being wild places</span></div><div class=""><span class="">that we dare not touch.</span></div><div class=""><span class="">When wild places go,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">we are all lost,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">because without them</span></div><div class=""><span class="">there is no place</span></div><div class=""><span class="">for dreams to land,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">there is no place</span></div><div class=""><span class="">for hope to set her seed,</span></div><div class=""><span class="">and take her slow time</span></div><div class=""><span class="">to grow inside</span></div><div class=""><span class="">each one of us.</span></div><div class=""><span class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Peter Fonken</span></div></div></body></html>