(Image of DWB provided by DWB)
Porcupine Spirit
For Montmorency County, Michigan,
USA
In a cedar swamp
one time, I saw
a gigantic
porcupine
standing up
on his hind legs
like a miniature
human. He was three
feet tall, and looked
like something out of
Star Wars with his incredible,
innumerable
quills
sticking out every which
way and his arms dangling
in front of him as he
stood there, his small face
unafraid of me and his whole
self refusing to move
off the path
which he
was blocking.
And indeed
he continued
to block the path
and watch me walk
away after I
gingerly
stepped
around him.
The forests up here
allow for many
moments like these –
vast, indigenous,
Germanic, huge,
mysterious, with little
to no
human habitations
for gigantic wild
stretches and nothing but
dirt roads. If you want
to be independent
on foot and wander
in a pine wilderness
like Johnny Appleseed
with a wolf,
you can choose
any direction
to do that
here
in the middle
of a place
that makes you
free.
Dr. Dale Williams Barrigar is a poet whose own poetry transformed his own life: suddenly, and then gradually. It’s good enough for him.
Saragun Springs 
Dale
It is nearly inconceivable that we still have wild places in America. It is sinful to devour land as though it were a birthright.
The poem speaks of that and of the brave Porcupine, who instead of running away, made her/himself as big as possible. And probzbly bragged his “success” up to his friends.
So much said about nature and the kindred wild spirit that we are destroying in the world and ourselves!
Leila
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Leila
Thanks for not just posting, but also inspiring the spirit of (in more ways than one), this poem.
And yes, I’ll bet the Porkie and his pals were high-fiving each other after this encounter!
I also want to throw another shout out there for Montmorency County, Michigan. It’s the poorest county in Michigan with some of the most beautiful scenery and wild lands and wildlife in Michigan (or America), including big animals like elk, black bear, and bald eagles (many of all the above). And the DNR has also confirmed wolf and mountain lion sightings in the area, rare but there.
I don’t want anyone else to discover this county and ruin it but I also don’t want it to be forgotten, either.
Thanks again, Leila!
Dale
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PS
“Montmorency” means “mountain moor” in French (probably, they say).
(The mountains there are small, but they ARE mountains; not just big hills.)
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I like it, particularly that sense -a la Frost – of the road or path opening up all sorts of prospects, as contained in these lines:
‘If you want to be independent on foot and wander in a pine wilderness like Johnny Appleseed with a wolf, you can choose any direction to do that here in the middle of a place that makes you free.’
Except perhaps the place does not MAKE you free; it allows you that choice.
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SJK
Thanks for calling out, or drawing out, the spirit of RF in this poem. He was definitely there in the back of my mind while writing; but I tried to push him so far into the back of my mind that his spirit could still inspire, but not overwhelm.
Great point about the place not making, but offering, the choice, too.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
Dale
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this made me grin and also a bit glad we don’t have porcupines here. Hedgehogs are not quite the same threat, though they do have fleas! Think wild boar are the narkiest, the snakes generally are shy and harmless as long as you’re not allergic. Whatever we have to acknowledge that we share the world and we need to share it well and with kindness. dd
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Diane
So glad this porcupine made you grin!
They aren’t the most cuddly of creatures from our thin-skinned human perspective, but you’re right, they have earned their right to exist on this Planet just like the rest of us!
Thanks again!
Dale
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Dale, my apologies, I’ve felt unhappy about not previously commenting on your poems here. Not least, because you were so kind in commenting on my pieces last week.
I know almost nothing about the key elements of poetry, But I’m afraid I was initially uneasy about the very short lines in your free verse: they seemed to promote a constant drumbeat rhythm that was sometimes at odds with the natural rhythms of the text.
But now, through repetition, I’ve become familiar with your approach and much less conscious of any imagined drumbeats! I’m a slow learner and, belatedly, I’m now liking these poems a great deal. There’s some lovely bits & pieces (eg. ‘this life we live is filled with involuntary immediacy’) and even a reference to Beowulf!
thank you, mick
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Hi Mick!
Thank you so much for admitting and saying that you were initially turned off by the form of these poems. Believe it or not, and I’m not being ironic, I love hearing this just as much as I enjoy praise and other positive reactions to the poems.
The reason is that I value (or try to value) honesty above all else.
Another reason is that poetry, I believe, is not something that is meant to be liked by everybody every time all the time, and especially not the first time.
I studied poetry for not years, but decades (off and on, and on and off again), before I TRULY felt like I was beginning to understand what it was REALLY all about. That goes mostly for the modernists like T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop and Wallace Stevens, but it also goes for Shakespeare, Dante, and Robert Browning.
I think much poetry is even meant to be off-putting at first, or at least not EASY to engage with, especially during the first few encounters.
There have been poems by T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop and Wallace Stevens that I did not like at all on first readings. Only after increased familiarity, sometimes over years (again off and on) did the poems start to sink in and say (to me) what they were meant to.
Finally, I do write poetry in more than one style and I have quite a few longer pieces in much longer lines (still in free verse).
I probably would not write a longer poem all in brief, short bursts of lines but these poems “told” me to do it that way so I had no choice.
I was also influenced by the work of two poets with the short line. William Carlos Williams and Bukowski. (My subject matter is not (too) similar too theirs.)
I think the very short lines, in the end, do not one, but two (or more) things: they both make the poem read in a fast way, AND slow the reader down.
I don’t know how both of those things can happen at once but somehow they seem to, part of the magic of poetry.
THANKS AGAIN, MICK! Truly great commentary and reactions to poetry from yourself and it even gave me a chance to explain myself to myself a little bit.
Dale
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Thanks for your generous response, Dale. I really appreciate your kindness in explaining your technique to someone who’s only an intermittent poetry reader (not quite true, The Faber Book of Reflective Verse is always late bedside reading, but not read anything new for a while now). As a favourite of mine wrote: ‘…true democracy begins/with free confession of our sins.’ I should take a look at your boys, William Carlos Williams & Bukowski.
May you keep writing and keep connecting, bw mick
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Hi Dale
That is a wild image of the porcupine! That would be the coolest thing to see one!
I liked your crystal clear image of it. You really brought it to life! The reference to Star Wars hit it. Reminding me of that crazy bar with all of those characters. Love that scene.
Any place without human habitation is a place I would like–hypocritically–allowing myself. These spaces should be protected to the utmost. I see patches of woods where I live and the farmers only keep them as a tax incentive. The deer and coyotes hide in these woods and speed across the fields to the next one–only trying to survive. It must be awful to be afraid all of the time.
The property owner has too much say over the trees and animals. Most are poor stewards. Only the law can stop them but the law is bent for the rich and their ilk, and now it’s fully against the environment.
Totally enjoyed this!
Christopher
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Christopher
Thank you so much! This porcupine encounter is not invented, except the way it’s described. It happened exactly as the poet (my humble self) says it did. He was a very badass little dude, and at one point I was about three feet away from him (or maybe four or five) because I didn’t want my feet to sink into the black muck of the swamp as I was walking. The black muck was so thick and deep my shoes might even have come off in it, no joke. And he was hogging the trail and I had to get through. But I’ll never forget him at all. He was so wild it truly felt like being briefly transported to another planet almost, hence the Star Wars reference. And I wasn’t even on magic mushrooms at the time.
By the way, it’s badass that you work as a roofer. For some reason, it reminds me of Michelangelo working in the stone quarries. I’ve read descriptions of what he was like while working. He made Mike Tyson or even Muhammad Ali look like twerps (sorry fellas).
It’s totally tragic what’s happening to the land and the animals right now. It makes one want to see humanity itself disappear in a flood like Noah’s Ark. And maybe that is exactly what will happen in the end. And it’s not as if the billionaires will escape it, either. Once it’s too hot to go outside, what kind of life will they really have in their underground bunkers filled with possessions? What kind of food will they eat when the soil blows away, the seas cover most of the land, the average daily temperature is 120 F even at the poles, and the sun scorches your skin the moment you poke your head out of the hole because the ozone layer is GONE?
They will have to fend for themselves.
Until then the beauty of what remains is really beautiful, maybe even more so because now it’s the end of all this. (Or the beginning of the end.)
Dale
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Hey Dale!
You’re welcome! That image of the porcupine standing will stick in my mind! I’m not sure if I read anything quite as original as that! Glad I read your poem!
I really enjoy how your work intersects with nature. I know that black swamp mud and sinking knee deep or farther. That makes it even more interesting! Hate to get nailed by one of Porc’s quills.
I’m a DIY guy on my own roof, so I can’t really call myself a paid roofer. Though, I’m saving a lot by not paying someone–lol. My Dad was a roofer–for sure.
That’s quite an image of Michelangelo working in the quarry! He sounds like a bad-ass. That’s an impressive detail, and it makes sense considering his great sculpture of “David” and many others–I’m sure.
I watched Rambo part 2 last night and that’s how it started–with Rambo busting rocks in prison. So that’s where my mind went.
Humans are literally a cursed species that cause so much harm to the environment. The rich are generally loathsome and once they were able to receive millions in campaign donations by single donars. They are here to stay. We live in a despicable time. With most despicable people running our government.
Yes having gratitude for what’s left is a great thing!
Christopher
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The piece reminds me that I’m surrounded my nature’s marvels (also expenses when pieces fall in inconvenient places as they tend to do).
Excuse me for this impertinent break. I was asked what you call the short lower part of a broken off tree, but I was stumped.
The Specific North West of the USA is known for its Tall Timbers (years ago a high school basketball team got that nickname). Cedars, Douglas Firs, all of those whose names I can’t remember. We have a few in our backyard and side yard. I read my editor is moving us to Sunset City/God’s Waiting Room, but at least it too has trees.
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Hi Doug
I’ve spent a little time in both Oregon and Washington, maybe four to six weeks total, staying with friends in Bellingham, Washington and Eugene, Oregon and just generally drifting around both states, etc etc. So I was lucky enough to get a taste of the beauty these states contain. I remember standing on the Oregon coast at one point and just gawking at the beauty of it all. I love where I live because it’s grown on me over the years and so many good and bad things have happened to me here I live in it like it’s mine. BUT if I were ever to move away from here, I would want it to be to the Pacific Northwest. For sure. The only thing that would worry me would be the lack of sunlight but maybe I could get a sun lamp.
I really enjoy hearing your reflections and commentaries on where you live plus your other comments, etc. Thanks!
Dale
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