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BEAR & THE ELEMENTALS

All rights reserved© Kevin Cadwallender 2014

The right of Kevin Cadwallenderto be identified as the

Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordanceWith section 77 of the copyright,

Design and Patent Act 1988.

Bear Fall

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Under the silver birches,Its leafy jigsaw scattered.Bear is counting shades of copper,Walking purposefully throughIts crisp and crunch and sheen.Finding the corners and edgesOf autumn to remake a memoryIn scent on the storyboard Of his snouting muzzle.

Bear Somnus

In the roll and scratch and snoreOf winter, A dream entersLike leaves blown into a caveLike smoke on the airFrom distant fires,

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Like hunters and trappersAt the edge of homeAndDeath calls too, remindingBear that sleep is its cousinAnd dreams are messengers;Sending warnings,Cloudy omens,Transmitting knowledge.In the deep safety blanketOf night stars dotted likeSparks on fur.

Bear & The Elementals

Bear nuzzledThe edge of the snowTouched it with an open pawFound winterCreeping Around his cave.Closed both eyesAnd went inside himselfShutting the doorTo all but dreams.

Soon even dreamsMelted into SpringAnd Bear opened

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His eyes

To look at the colourOf hungeron the palette of hisdesire.

Scooping clawfulsOf berries and flowersTo draw the edgeOff craving.

Bear in the Bolshoi Woods.

Bear scrubs a cherry from a bushRubs its soft musk onto his muzzle Squeezes its juice onto his pouting lipsReflects in the compact mirror of a pool.

Wears the rags he has stolenFrom the campers washing line.Dances like a bear dances,All growl and claws And imagines applause in

The bees frantic blizzard.Gracefully, he pirouettes A bulky ballerina boundingInto the salmon deep waters.

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Bear’s Treasure.

Scraping at the root of a holly bushWith his sharpened sinistral claw,Bear uncovers something whiteLike December frosted snow.

Like mistletoe berries pearledOn fur, it glistens perfectly,As scrape turns to tendernessAnd delicate enters his eyes.

Cradling it in stillnessHe places it back undercover,Leaves it for other bearsWithout epiphanies.

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Bear Concerto

Bear pounds out the black notesThunders a discord along the ivoryHammers with great galumphing spansThe percussion of wilderness.

Hits accidental grace, en passant,Smashes David’s secret chordPleasing the god of bearsWho flashes fork lightning into water.Accepting cacophony as Prayer for fish and other jewelsHidden in the fresh soundOf Bear and river’s persistentUnending cacophony.

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Bear Variations.

Mangling the percussion of bonesWhite bones gnawed by foxesBlack bones rotted by rainRed bones soaked by dying,Bear composes a concerto.

Leaps and rolls rubbing the scentOf death into his pelt, the only Flavour worth bathing in;To preserve himself from it,To remember its name on the air.

The hush of wind through long grassThe symphony of the river of blood.

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Bear’s Picnic

Scattering the apes,Bear strolls into a picnicYawns mistaken for roarsAs he lazily overturnsBaskets and the paper platesOf more delicate lives.Guzzling the fizzy sugar water,Sneezing and belching underThe shade of a Banyan TreeLike Buddha’s untrained, feral,Outlaw brother from the road to NirvanaWhich only has one path,The path trodden blissfullyHeavily, unceasinglyWith nature written throughIts core like words through rock.

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Bear in Asda

Biting down on the fresh pre packed whole salmonSquirting gouts of lymph,blood and iced water over the asda acesWho gather mops at the ready at a respectful distance.Bear bites down again, deep and again until sated.Meanders towards fresh produceSelects a single ripe plantain like a cuban cigarSucks it whole before peeling its petals open with dextertityCramming the mush and skin and shrugging,stumbles off to exploreThe distant check outs jingle and beep.

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Bear Faux

So many counterfeits;Baloo, Winnie the Poo, Beorn,Brer Bear, Biffo, Bungle, Fozzie,Sooty, Yogi and Boo BooRuxpin, Pudsey, Barney, Po Ping,Gentle Ben, Shardik, Paddington,Rupert, Iohrik Byrnison…

Some truer than othersA role call of the ridiculousUrsa maligned,Ursa cuteism,Ursa cartoons, Ursa caricatures,Ursa Teddy Bears, Ursa dancing for coppers.

Where is the roar?The core of us all.Where is the roar!

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Bear Angelus

Laying down amid the last dregsOf the autumn, full stretch andArcing his back, sends out one lastShuddering, sombre monotone Into the night that gathers Like a mawkish crowdAt a last request.Bear scents the muskOf wings descending,

God’s carrion crows arrive.In pairs, then in their hostTo deliver the last rites.Rising as his back unfoldsTo the sky, releasingThe final flutter over bonesFamiliar white and the moonPushing through feathered shadowsTo bestow light upon the fallen.

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Bear’s Afterlife

Bears Afterlife was all blueberries and spaceous cavesSunlight on the mirrored bodies of miraculous fishFields of unending honeyed cornLying in the sweet scented rapeseed yellow at night gazing up at stars designated as Callisto and Arcas.

Bear Inferno

Swatting the many wasps

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and hornets thereTaking Artio as a guide and visiting Agrius and OrieusIn their reverieBear descends to visit Uschi and holds herIn his warmest gentlest hugApologises with one expression from the depth of his ursine soulMoves up through the glorious circlesTicking them off as doneAshamed of only oneAnd not comprehending the point of twoWears the others on his heartlike badges of honour.

Bear Rising

Bear Rises under a new moonFreshly dropped onto soft clayLicked clean and plied with warm milk.Dozes in the safest claw in the forestOpens his eyes as the world

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Floods inAll Technicolor and full surround sound.Feeling his birth as the worshipped felt theirsAll the gifts of life strewn in his pathAll the tomorrows lining upTo replace the first, living day.

All poems and Drawings Copyright Kevin Cadwallender 2014.For a free CD of the poems from Bear & The Elementals read by the AuthorSend a Self addressed padded envelope with adequate return postage to 119/1 Easter Road, Edinburgh EH7 5PP.

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Kevin Cadwallender has given up biogs as he is allergic, but you can google him.

Other Books by Kevin CadwallenderAvailable from www.redsquirrelpress.comSmokestack books.

Find him on facebook, soundcloud and youtube.

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