Bear Poem by Barry Middleton

he lumbered through the deepest forest
and gazed upon the western shore
and climbed a lost forbidden mountain
but still he wanted so much more

he sought the source of every river
compelled to wander far and wide
he made his home beside a meadow
and slept where silent stars abide

to dark remote and secret swamps
and all along the southern bays
he knew the grace of sacred valleys
and all of nature's hidden ways

but now he seeks the journey home
where every path comes to its end
to rest beneath the slow black water
where all the ills of life may mend