![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/The-Shaman.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nby Larry D. Thomas<\/p>\n
He gazes
\nwith the eyes
\nof an ancient god.
\nFor thousands
\nof years,<\/p>\n
he\u2019s seen
\nhimself
\nas a sibling
\nof the beast
\nwhose blood<\/p>\n
and flesh
\nhave nourished him.
\nHe regales
\nhis brow
\nwith the plumes<\/p>\n
of birds, which,
\nwhen darkness
\nfalls, roost
\nin his skull
\nas dreams.<\/p>\n
He wakes, rises
\nfrom his mat of straw,
\nand clothes himself
\nwith his hallowed
\nrobe of daybreak.<\/p>\n
###<\/p>\n
Larry D. Thomas, a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, was the 2008 Texas Poet Laureate. \u00a0He has published several award-winning and critically acclaimed collections of poetry, most recently A Murder of Crows and Uncle Ernest, both of which were published by the Virtual Artists Collective, Chicago, in 2011 and 2013, respectively. \u00a0His New and Selected Poems (Texas Christian University Press, 2008) was a semi-finalist for the National Book Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Larry D. Thomas, a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, was the 2008 Texas Poet Laureate. He has published several award-winning and critically acclaimed collections of poetry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poem"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t