I had no time to go out
\ninto the forest, to hike ranges
\nof Old Growth. I had no days left
\nto pursue the rumor of a rare
\nraptor predicted to visit
\nour wildlands for hours
\nor a weekend. I turned off<\/p>\n
the highway by the college
\nonto the Delphi road
\nwhere my next patient waited,
\nher patient husband counted hours,
\nwhen I saw amid a stand
\nof dark evergreen, the utterly white
\nform. It didn\u2019t seem to be among<\/p>\n
branches; it seemed superimposed.
\nTraffic flowing around me,
\nI drove on with only a glance,
\nyet the impression was vivid. Even
\nat eighty feet, maybe more,
\nI could determine the infinite eyes,
\nthe arctic barbs of feathers.<\/p>\n
I could feel in my own chest,
\nthe labor of a long journey
\nand the winds yet to come. For months
\nwhen I turned onto the Delphi,
\nI glanced into that stand of Douglas fir.
\nBut the owl returned
\nonly in the startle of a dream,<\/p>\n
so white the darkness around it
\nwas endless. So still it became
\na tatter in the veil. Ominous
\nbut comforting. Even midweek during
\nordinary duty – driving, bandaging,
\nsoothing – the northland of a night
\nbird did not abandon me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had no time to go out into the forest, to hike ranges of Old Growth. I had no days left to pursue the rumor of a rare raptor predicted to visit our wildlands for hours or a weekend. I turned off the highway by the college onto the Delphi road where my next patient…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"issue":[7],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n