By Michael Avery
I was hiking along Horseheaven Creek just north of Steamboat on the North Umpqua River many years ago when I had a vision. In my mind’s eye, I saw a sacred valley called Horse Heaven, where wild horses still run free. Perhaps there exists such a valley in the area, but I didn’t pursue that reality since my vision was so clear and real to me. I memorialized that vision with a poem.
When the memory of that day kept returning, I realized that I’d missed a lesson or an insight back then. Horse Heaven, and especially one pony, was a metaphor. So, I got out the verse I’d written many years ago…