Of Earthly Beings and Wild Things

Of Earthly Beings and Wild Things is a poetic journey through mountains, valleys, waterfalls, rivers, and roads less traveled. It is filled with an elder's vivid experience and spiritual understandings of the miracle world that is Mother Nature, as understood by another man's contemplative and discerning pen.

At the turn of the century, hiking along a windy path in the Cascade Mountains, the author met a man by the name of Grey Cloud, a Native American in his 70s who had shared his wisdom of life and knowledge of the astonishing places he had come to visit and know. For many years this elder had taken it on his own to write poetic verses about the power and glory of nature. Arthur politely asked Grey Cloud if he could read some of his verses, at which time this man of grey hair handed over a small pile of hand written poetry, some on rustled and others on crispy paper, and he said he could keep the poems and do with them as he pleased.

So it came to be that Of Earthly Beings and Wild Things would evolve into an organized set of poems, continually revised under prudent titles, and alongside pictures of nature taken by the author himself. Sometimes words come and go, like wind though mountainous land. In this book, they are awaiting to be rediscovered, like one rediscovers something new in nature when hiking the same path in a different season.