In 2023, the editor of The Moth (2010-2023), Rebecca O’Connor, asked if I would record my poem, ‘Ursa Major’, to celebrate the life of the magazine. ‘Ursa Major’ was published in The Moth in 2012 (Issue 10) and is included in my poetry collection, Wild (2014).

‘Ursa Major’ was inspired by the tale of Callisto, the huntress turned into a bear by Juno after she discovered Callisto had given birth to Jupiter’s son, Arcas. Callisto roamed the forest for years until, one day, she came face to face with her son, now a young hunter. Arcas took aim to kill the animal, but Jupiter intervened and turned Arcas into a bear as well. Jupiter then grabbed Mother and Son both by their tails and swung them into space. Callisto became Ursa Major (the Great Bear), the largest constellation in the northern sky, while Arcas became Ursa Minor (the Little Bear).

The Mi’kmaq of the Northeastern Woodlands, the First Peoples of Canada’s Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec, and Native Americans in the northeastern region of Maine, also have a myth about a big bear for this constellation. And so, too, the Iroquois.