The Voice Of One Crying In The Wilderness.


Now halt your minds and listen to their cry
From northern altars formed of snow and ice
Beneath celestial curtains in their sky
The wolves give evensong of sacrifice.

All creatures stop- transfixed by somber hymns
Which rise from frozen mountains to the stars,
To One whose understanding never dims,
Who walked with man and also bears the scars.

The howling joins the wind which sweeps the earth.
Angelic zephyrs sing like flute and fife
Reaching the ears of one who from his birth
Has dared deny the sacredness of life.

This man, now trembling, sees upon his wall
A mounted wolf, his trophy, his distress,
That prophet’s head brings judgment on us all
Like one who also cried in wilderness.

So listen now, we may not have so long.
Please listen to the crying voice, and care,
And pray that we may never end the song
Of wolves and wind that fills the arctic air.

John H. Bidwell