WALT McLAUGHLIN

FALL/WINTER 2021 ISSUE #03 POET

WALT McLAUGHLIN is a philosopher of wildness who writes about the natural world, being human, and his backcountry excursions. His work has appeared in Blueline, Conservationist, Cream City Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, and many other periodicals. He has over a dozen books in print, including a hiking narrative, The Allure of Deep Woods, a book of verse, A Hungry Happiness, and a collection of personal essays, Cultivating the Wildness Within. He regularly blogs at woodswanderer.com, and is the driving force behind the small press Wood Thrush Books.

FIRST LIGHT

Awake before robins,

I catch a glimmer of light

bleaching the dark blue night,

brightening slowly, slowly

before that fiery orb

crests the ridge.

Someday I will forego

all action, all thought,

and simply watch

the whole show.

Then the mystic in me

will know all there is 

to know.