The Loons Call

There is primeval here, when the motors cease -

The lake rests

As it has done centuries before man.

There is a soul in this glacial basin

Known to few but the diving loon.

His plaintiff call fills the silent night

With an ancient, melancholy cry.

Crowding the hearts of man with haunting mystery -

No science yet explains!

A tone so pure, so searching,

Mocking man's addiction to the trivia of his lives -

Seeming to call him back with tonal questions -

Each one, octaves of beauty
and the profoundness of life.

 

12/1974 - from Judy Barta's Rangeley Maine Poetry Selections 1920-2009