Elizabeth Spencer Spragins, USA
Treasure
Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, Manteo, North Carolina, USA
when a red wolf howls
the twilight winds remember
music of old moons
echoes in the wooded halls
lined with uncut emeralds
In 1987, the US Fish and Wildlife Service initiated a program to save the red wolf from extinction. More than 100 captive-bred wolves were released in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge over the next thirty years. Although the population grew to more than 200 wolves, numbers have plummeted over the last decade. Fewer than 45 animals remain, and the outlook for the program is uncertain.
Going Back
Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
a moose meanders
over remnants of the road
aflame with autumn
leaves that cup the crimson cold
spill their silence underfoot
Elizabeth Spencer Spragins is a poet and writer who taught in American community colleges for more than a decade. Her tanka and bardic verse in the Celtic style have been published extensively in Europe, Asia, and North America. She is the author of With No Bridle for the Breeze: Ungrounded Verse (Shanti Arts Publishing) and The Language of Bones: American Journeys Through Bardic Verse(Kelsay Books). Updates are available on her website: www.authorsden.com/elizabethspragins. An avid swimmer and an enthusiastic fiber artist, she lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia.