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Unlike children exploring — in the transition among impulse, play, and curiosity — adults on safari, not knowing a thing about the whereabouts of whatever there is of sudden life, do well to scan the surroundings with evenly floating attention. Yet, if one has patience — and the direction of sharp-eyed guides, like “Monso” in Susan Kolodny's poem of the same name — nature offers a montage of rest, startled movement, drift, and dwelling:
After [Monso] has shown us the sleeping pride,baboons spilling from the trees,a lone bull elephant, gray-crowned cranesand sacred ibis along the river,the duplex nest of marabou storkbuilt over the lagoon,eland, waterbucks protected by lawand in their native, pristine habitat…. (p. 10)
Coupling “law” and “habitat,” Kolodny shows that for wild nature to flourish, it must be defended from human predation. The symbolic must shelter the real.