Encounters

Guest blogger: Charlene Edge

"Lions" photo by Hoyt L. Edge, taken at Kruger National Park, 1999.

Our guest blogger today is Charlene Edge whose most recent book is From the Porch to the Page: A Guidebook for the Writing Life—a delightful multi-genre collection with something for every reader and writer. She is also the author of the award-winning memoir, Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International. I wrote a blog about her last year. You can revisit it here. Today she is sharing with us a cherished poem about a scary incident that could have had a profound impact on her life.

This poem is a tribute to my husband, Hoyt Edge, the love we share, and how one moment might have made our amazing life together not happen at all. The poem emerged after he told me about his trip to South Africa in 1999 before we started dating in 2000.

The incident in the poem happened while he was on safari through Kruger National Park, riding in an open-top tour jeep with a few other sightseers. It was getting dark by this time, but up ahead the experienced tour driver saw signs of lions in the nearby grass and along the sandy road. Very nervous, he stopped the jeep before they got too close, trying to back it up and get out of there fast, but unfortunately the wheels got stuck and spun in the sand.

There they were, trapped in their seats, sweating and silent, listening as the lions chowed down on whatever animal they’d killed for dinner. When Hoyt tells the story, he says he took his little Swiss Army knife out of his pocket to be ready in case the lions got any ideas. He wasn’t going down without a fight! Finally, while the lions were still gorging, another jeep came along and rescued dear Hoyt and his fellow travelers.

Encounters

For survivor Hoyt, my husband, who dreams and dares

Maxine Kumin writes of animals—

their habits, needs and wants.

Like humans, the wild ones spend

five senses and hidden powers to survive.

Surviving, you’re with me at the table.

Our food is spread before us:

bread and cheese and wine.

I learn you are a man truly spared.

Five lions gave you up one African night,

your jeep stuck in spinning sand.

Unmoving in your seat, you think:

The End.      It’s been a good life.

I think of Maxine’s poem,

“Encounter in August” –

a bear stole into her camp,

looked her in the face,

ate her beans,

lumbered back into the wild.

Your lions spread themselves atop the road,

dazed and gorged by the bloody kill,

too poor-sighted to understand

the difference between machine and man.

Their eyes glowed in steady headlights

while you surveyed memories spread before you

like bread and cheese and wine.

Jungle kings, dazed and weary,

satisfied and dull,

sauntered back into the wild.

On mornings as I wake with you

I thank them.

“Encounters” was published in From the Porch to the Page: A Guidebook for the Writing Life. New Wings Press, LLC. 2022.

More about Charlene:

Charlene Edge

Author photo by Hoyt L. Edge, taken at Rollins College, 2021.

Charlene grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in a Roman Catholic family. In college, students recruited her into The Way International, a Bible-based cult; she gave it the next seventeen years of her life. After escaping The Way in 1987, she earned a BA in English Literature from Rollins College, graduating summa cum laude, and worked for more than a decade as a technical writer and proposal writer in the software industry.

She is a published short-short story writer, an award-winning poet, and a member of the Florida Writers Association, The Authors Guild, and the International Cultic Studies Association.

Charlene lives in Florida with her husband, Dr. Hoyt L. Edge, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Rollins College. On her website, she blogs about their world travels, the writing life, fundamentalism, cults, and whatever catches her imagination. Visit her at https://charleneedge.com.

From the Porch to the Page: A Guidebook for the Writing Life is a multi-genre collection from award-winning author Charlene L. Edge, offering more than thirty short essays about the writing craft, practical exercises, marketing tips, self-publishing, and book recommendations to nourish your writing life. Besides exploring beloved authors and poets, Edge includes her own stories and poems on love, loss, nature, travel, and being a writer. Beginning with “Readers Become Writers” and ending with “If You Want to Keep Writing,” Edge’s gentle guide highlights vistas, detours, and delights on the writing path. Available in paperback and eBook at major booksellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.