Call of the Wild

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Call of the Wild

"Raised up a simple dog,
I passed from hands to hands.
And learned the law of club and fang,
It’s the law that life demands.

I ran along-side Huskies
and walked on frozen land.
In search of yellow metal,
That calls up mortal man.

I found my master murdered
Face down in the creek
And now I live in the wild
A place so full of peace…

I lay next to the nature
And listen to the sounds
I watch the Living food
that is moving all around

I hear the call, that echoes
Which stops me in my tracks
It’s a tantalizing music
To which I can not turn my back

I sense the pride within me
It’s yearning to break free.
I can hold back no longer
It’s time for me to leave.

I leap into a fury
And race into the wild
Running to my hearts content
Greedy like a child.

I don’t know I’m running,
But my instincts tell me to.
The call is so demanding
Like fish drawn to the blue.

Everything I ever need
Is here within this place,
Every meat I’d ever want,
And water is replaced.

I stand up high on mighty cliff
And howl to all that hear
So they will know that I’m alive
I rule this place here.

It’s the call of the wild
And the blood in my veins
That pushes me on forward
Throughout the endless rains

I am master of this place
And ruler of the land
I need not be dog or wolf
Because I am who I am."

~ Michael Douglas Hamby
(based on the classic book: The Call of the Wild, written by Jack London)

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The Call Of The Wild

"Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there's nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley with the green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence? Then for God's sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.

Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,
The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?
Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,
And learned to know the desert's little ways?
Have you camped upon the foothills, have you galloped o'er the ranges,
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?
Have you chummed up with the mesa? Do you know its moods and changes?
Then listen to the Wild -- it's calling you.

Have you known the Great White Silence, not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver?
(Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies.)
Have you broken trail on snowshoes? mushed your huskies up the river,
Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?
Have you marked the map's void spaces, mingled with the mongrel races,
Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew?
And though grim as hell the worst is, can you round it off with curses?
Then hearken to the Wild -- it's wanting you.

Have you suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled down, yet grasped at glory,
Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?
"Done things" just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story,
Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?
Have you seen God in His splendors, heard the text that nature renders?
(You'll never hear it in the family pew.)
The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things --
Then listen to the Wild -- it's calling you.

They have cradled you in custom, they have primed you with their preaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase; you're a credit to their teaching --
But can't you hear the Wild? -- it's calling you.
Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There's a whisper on the night-wind, there's a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling . . . let us go."

~ Robert William Service