An Archer's Inner Life Book

	Preface and Apologia	xv
	What connection does making wood bows have with man's place in nature
	The place of hunter and hunted
	The connection of archery and bow making with hunting
	The traditions of hunting
	Self-knowledge is worth striving for
	A simple perspective to self-knowledge with a minimalist approach
	Making bows has calmed me
	Hidden Hand	3
	Poem
	The Bow: A Tool of No Significance	4
	"I made that bow in 1938"
	I carved the bow
	The primitive bow is good mythology
	The primitive bow is allegorical
	The nature of its shape
	Arcs, circles, cycles, symbols, bows
	Shooting primitive bows is not like shooting other archery equipment
	The Art of Being Genuine	26
	This, dear friends, is hunting
	A bear hunt
	For modern hunters, Thoreau's sense of Nature has vanished
	Hunting is atavistic
	Hunting is an exercise in genuity
	Hunting is immersion into nature
	We may eat without hunting
	Raven Speaks of Arrow Shafts	39
	Poem
	Confessions of a Self-Bow Cultist	41
	The central tool is called the self-bow
	Self-bows are meager and simple
	The bow takes shape
	Simple bow, tools, task, self
	Carve a bow and ponder death lightly
	The Renaissance	56
	The bow delights me with its character, as do the arrows
	We create art
	Functional art
	A bow must work as a bow
	Shooting the bow is an art
	The roving archer is an athlete
	We feel inexplicably compelled to find the secrets to primitive archery
	Life After Fly Fishing	63
	Fly fishing used to be a perfect hobby
	Would Leopold call fly fishing a hobby
	Bamboo and natural feathers
	Finding a suitable substitute for fly fishing is not easy
	Archery is older than fly fishing
	Hesitate at the future of fly fishing
	Feathered Hair	71
	Poem
	Savage Liberty on Hummingbird Creek	73
	Time is money
	Do not think on time
	What interest and importance can bows and arrows be
	Time management
	Time may be all we have
	Shoot arrows from ancient bows
	It may strike the targets: actual, time and self
	We watch our colorful arrows proceed mysteriously
	How to Remember the Best Times	82
	Moon phases
	We cannot remember everything
	React only if the bear tries the tent
	Deep calming breaths, deep calming breaths
	Adventure, danger strikes at our deepest part
	I listen to the bears
	Time spent in field or forest
	Fasting Hunt: A Hero's Journey	92
	Bart packed no food
	Bart walked and walked some more
	Bart, Bart, Bart
	Bart breathed deeply, slowly, quietly
	His hallucination
	Poor Bart
	Companion	103
	Poem
	A letter from Native Americans to settlers, dated 1774	105
	Short letter
	The Uncertainty Principle	106
	We were turkey hunting
	I thought how old is this kind of hunting
	How accurately modern synthetic bows may be shot
	Modern bows rely upon a large number of small variables to effect arrow flight
	We learn caution in reliance on too small detail
	Turkeys see arrows coming and casually step aside
	A good wood bow in the Black Hills
	More than a Mountain: The Archer's Paradox	116
	We do not seek
	Gnarled sinew-backed bows
	The archer's paradox
	It makes you an archer and not an art collector
	Death of a tree, life of a bow, portrayal in art, art itself
	The hunting archer illustrates another paradox
	The Yahi archer, Ishi, exemplified this paradox
	Our lives are filled with paradox
	The Sorcerer's Appliance	125
	Opponents of hunting would have us believe that hunting and killing are equivalent terms
	How important is the killing
	We hunt as we read
	Hunting comprises a quality issue. 'Witchery' is an excellent synonym for quality hunting
	Cultivation of the mind aroused when hunting
	Enough is Sufficient	138
	Hunting viewed as a privilege
	The greater good of society superceding the benefit of hunting
	Engage in tradition
	Those who stand tallest and our extreme excess of material for hunting
	What constitutes pure hunting?
	Traditionally pursuit on foot or horseback
	A grouse hunt
	Hunting: A Redefinition of Terms	151
	The equipment checklists for modern hunting
	More natural means exist for hunting
	Hunting is predation, a biologic function
	Hunting equals killing
	Hunting is big business
	Business confuses the motivations of society for hunting
	Emersion into our ancestral form
	Yellow Feathers	159
	Poem
	A Part or Apart	161
	Nature and my juniper bow
	Are we a part of, or apart from, nature?
	What is innocence in nature?
	Mankind's role in nature
	Violins are of wood, wood is of nature
	I ask if the lion in the zoo is of nature
	We play sonatas
	The reason for loving the natural life
	As part of nature we live and die
	A wood bow will remind us that we are part of nature
	I'll Take My Hunter's Stand	170
	A noble ecological notion
	Nature is a dealer in life and death
	We are born and by nature's hand we die
	Key trophic links
	Hunt and eat or eat vegetarian
	"Ishi and modern man shared neither weapons, techniques, nor attitudes."
	Twelve Curses	183
	Killing is the goal of hunting
	Hunters hunt in order to kill
	People carry weapons when they hunt
	No necessity for killing is attached to hunting
	Hunting is recreation
	Hunters kill for play
	Hunting is fun for the hunter
	Hunting is a matter of conscience
	Chant Wood	195
	Poem
	The Blank	196
	The carver calls the piece of wood a blank
	Ghost shape hiding inside the blank
	Dreaming implies holding some expectation of an outcome
	Psychics and crackpots claim to dream with predictive accuracy
	The carving to the dreaming
	Dreams and outcomes converge
	Integration	202
	Our covenant with the hunted is fair chase
	Hunting is tradition
	The hunting business and advertisement people encourage more of us to hunt
	Hunters can reinvest thinking and practice
	Elk do not hide behind every tree and most of what is called elk hunting is elk walking