Under the Wolf Moon
poetry as a primal howl
“Go out in the woods, go out. If you don't go out in the woods nothing will ever happen and your life will never begin.”
― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves
The Wolf Moon
January’s full moon, arrives on Monday the 13th carrying with it the echoes of instinct and survival. Named for the howls of wolves piercing the stillness of frozen nights, this moon invites us to reconnect with our primal selves—the part of us that knows how to endure and thrives even when the world feels barren. This is not a glass half-full kind of moon, it is a moon that cries out for the pain of the world.
And doesn’t this week meet that moon exactly where it needs to? It is bitterly cold here in New England and on fire across the country in Los Angeles. We are bearing witness to continued global violence and here in the States we are on the brink of handing the reigns of this nation to man without morals or character. I am feeling about as wolf-like as I get.
Howling at the Moon
One of my favorite ways to find poems about a specific theme, is to go to Poetry Foundation and put in a keyword. When I looked for “Wolves” I found 99 poems, even more for wolf.
There seems to be a special relationship between wolves and poets. The desire for solitude and also being part of a pack, perhaps. The archetype of power and perseverance, the teeth, the blood, the bones; it’s all viscera and survival. And what is poetry but a kind of howl? A way to get at what cannot be said with typical language?
While I am all for gratitude and appreciation for what we have, sometimes there is a need to clear the air, to bemoan the world and the situations we find ourselves in. Sometimes, we need to cry and scream and complain. Let this be permission if you need it, to write or sing or scream to the heavens.
Poetry Prompt: Choose a name for the January Moon, and write a poem to it that is also a howl.
"With the wild nature as ally and teacher, we see not through two eyes, but through the many eyes of intuition. With this wild knowing, we see what is before us and what is behind us, and we sense what is below us and what is on the periphery."
- Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves
Journal Prompt: Write about something you are hunting for in your life right now—a goal, a dream, or even a relationship. What is behind you? What is on the periphery? Where do you need to let your instincts take the lead?
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Such a good post! I adore Dr. Pinkola-Estes.
I got to see Allen Ginsburg perform Howl in Ann Arbor in The 90s. It was so cool.