The Big Dipper is part of
Ursa Major,
The Great Bear
constellation
That presides over the
Arctic.
Ursa shows the way to the
North Star
Which has been helping
people navigate
For thousands of years.
It's hard to conceive of
what that meant
For people on the North
American continent,
To have that star,
Polaris, up there
To depend on for
orientation.
The Arctic is named for Arktos -- Bear.
Is it really so strange
That Bear and her land share
the same great spirit?
We aren't used to making whole
places disappear,
Only the souls and
vitality of places.
Ursus,
however , will not go away,
Being made of stars.
But Arktos has nowhere to
go and
She can't go to live in
the sky,
Or can she?
I wonder how our distant descendants
Will explain these times.
Will they tell of a race of small-headed, one-eyed
giants
Who chased Arktos into the sky
Where she found protection behind Ursus?
The Antarctic, on the
other hand, is appearing
As the ice melts,
But no bears live there.
Antarctic means the
opposite of Arctic;
It is the Land of No Bear.
If only we could find our
way
To learning from our
mistakes
Instead of making a
religion of disproving our worth
Before all the eyes of
the heavens.
