a book on wolves ends:
“safe from the wolf’s black jaw”
I do not WANT to be safe from wolves
would head out with them
to an otherwise barren hill
— moonlit, of course
where vibrations and tones
— heard and unheard
but always felt —
rise through furred throats
toward clouds we can all nearly touch
slanted eyes gleam
like honey in sunlight
I would put my two pale arms
around those dusky shoulders
wait with my wolves
for new songs
Edelmann studied with Ted Weiss, Galway Kinnell, and Stanley Plumly at Princeton University in the 1970s. She and Betty Lies co-founded Cool Women Poets. A naturalist and preservationist, she is community relations manager at D&R Greenway Land Trust.
