Birds
It was before golden morning
when the bird in my belly flew out
and tried to sing.
The snake in my head
swung up from the shadow,
a scaleback s-curve of mirrors blurring,
blackberry eye hinged like a pocketwatch
unblinking till the bird dropped
a split seed of candlelight for
the wolf in your belly
biting for blood.
It was full moon dark
when the owl in my wilderness
woke hungry to fly.
She was
tied to a string
black banding her leg, hanging
a pendulum in feathery vertigo
trance-trapped, back and
forth, up and down,
out
of focus.
The snake in my head asked to be fed,
curled in the moon pool
where light lost its way, a
reticulated
rebus hissing the metafizz,
while the wolf in your lab coat
unwrinkled the dazzle
where ice-glamour hid,
crushed in his paw
the prism that blinds.
With one ivory bite
he sliced the black band
and the birds
the birds were
gone-colored light.
~February 2013,
revised January 2014
posted for real toads
Sunday Feature Artist: Elisabetta Trevisan
This is an older poem that appeared on a defunct anonymous blog to very limited readership, which I have revised and reworked for the prompt.
Artwork (Chimera/The Sound of Thunder) copyright Elisabetta Trevisan
Used with permission.
Ms. Trevisan's website: here
Her fine art prints site: http://betta.redbubble.com/
You can also find her on Facebook.
Her fine art prints site: http://betta.redbubble.com/
You can also find her on Facebook.
dang...wicked rhythm in this...like hip hop....all the animals got it going on inside you eh? it thumps all the way through but the owl/pendulum stanza kicked it up a notch for me...think if i was the birds i might be happy to be flying free by the end..smiles.
ReplyDeleteDark & biting with the owl, snake, wolf and birds flying to be free ~ What stood out for me was the hunger & thirst, for blood, for freedom & for that glorious morning light ~ Thank you for resurrecting this piece Hedge as it is worthy to be read again ~ Wishing you happy weekend ~
ReplyDeleteprogress vs. the human body. there is a terrific blend of biological science with earth-lore here. the owl seems to be the unknown and is, I think, a strong match for the wolf. I love the broad mystery you evoke in this piece. the birds are away yet still present with their gone-colored light. magnificent.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jane. This was written in a very dark period, and rewritten in a time of equilibrium, so it has a rather schizoid quality for me. ;_) Thanks for your reading, and your thoughts, always.
DeleteVery rich, Hedge, you played out that chimera aspect well...powerful imagery and thick with mystery. I really enjoyed this..especially the idea of the bird being released form her belly...how cool. Guess what?! I picked the same image! I'm not really surprised though...it seems like that happens with us... :)
ReplyDeleteHa! We have some sort of synchronicity going on with these picture things, don;t we. I really felt, reading your poem, that you had presented the illuminated side, while I had drawn the darker card, but both seem about other eyes,other ways of seeing, bringing us something we would other wise lack. Thank you, Hannah, for your kind words.
DeleteI am thankful for reading it. It's powerful. :)
ReplyDeleteI would never have thought to say "gone-colored light" but it's powerful here, my friend.
ReplyDeleteLuv, K
Phew! This one rips the edge of night to shreds! I'm so glad I didn't read yours before I wrote mine...Haha!
ReplyDeleteThis artists work seems the perfect companion to your style, Hedge. I'm so glad this poem has come to light.
Kerry yours was just one of those perfect poems that only comes along rarely, one that speaks the secrets we guard from the light. Thanks for your praise, and you know I *never* read yours (or anyone elses') first or I would never be able to post! ;_)
DeleteCunning bit of alchemy or witchery or cookery or all of that in this poetry, with the bestiary freed to run wild -- So there's a method to the madness of the union, as if the bird in the belly was ensnared by the snake in the mind until the wolf in another's belly donned a lab coat and made that surgical bit that freed the owl from her tether leaving only "gone-colored light" which I read in both senses, with dash and em-dash, and finding it worked either way, which is how down the long road I've come to see all of my intimate way-stations, harm and boon. If love is the theme its like the old boozer's conundrum that alcohol gives you wings to fly only to take away the sky. Very carefully inlaid and intoned, Hedge, an homage to the mandrake that alone makes the stew really flavorful. Glad you interred it here. - b
ReplyDeleteThanks, B--a bit of a Jungian frolic, or masque and unmasking here. You have defined the underlying process spot on, as well as found every hidden egg in the plastic nest material. Thanks for the in-sight of your poet's eye.
DeleteThis takes more than one reading - each time finding more. I like the use of the owl, the snake the birds - no calm animals. These put you out in the wild while reading your words.
ReplyDelete"The snake in my head
ReplyDeleteswung up from the shadow,
a scaleback s-curve of mirrors blurring,
blackberry eye hinged like a pocketwatch
unblinking till the bird dropped
a split seed of candlelight for
the wolf in your belly
biting for blood."
Oh, stoppit and give the rest of us a chance!
O, like my writing doesn;t normally look like the mindless scratching of poultry next to yours, huh?
DeleteHi Hedge--this has a very Marc Chagall feel to me--though it goes wonderfully with the illustration too--all these different parts--seems dreamlike but my brain goes to super id, id, ego--plain old heart and conscious and second-guesser, witness--the daemons work it out, or not. I looked for the older poem, which I remember though I can't remember how this is changed, but feels more musical - the beginning and close were especially powerful here I thought--all of it is very vivid and powerful, but these are the simplest and most direct parts, which work best for the plodding (like me.) k.
ReplyDeleteBy the word, "conscious" I meant conscience - although consciousness would be a good close second for what I meant.
DeleteConscious and conscience are kind of inextricable perhaps, as concepts, anyway. Thanks, k. I changed the poem primarily by changing the disconnected to the connected (or that's what I tried to do) to make a bit more of a narrative instead of a surreal slideshow--but most of it is just a little word polishing, though your ear is right, I put it into a meter of sorts als, which it didn't have originally. I've archived the other blog for now as I never use it, but who knows.Thanks for reading--i hope you are having a good weekend and all your devices are doing what you want them to.
DeleteHa! Thanks. I have kept my old computer with me as it has kind of revived, if in a worrisomely teetering way, as I didn't think I could get all copied before leaving. But don't have my other devices because when I left home thought I would be able to rely on computer. I do have to say the intravenous iPhone is a great help. k.
DeleteLike the methadone of the internet. ;_) I feel for you with the teetering thing, after my monitor experience. It makes one feel very insecure.
DeleteGoodness. Gorgeous, from start to finish. I was particularly drawn to:
ReplyDelete"a scaleback s-curve of mirrors blurring"
and OH! that "full moon dark" really shocked me, because I woke up this morning with poem particles in my head about how the moon is still full when she's dark. I had just finished starting on it when I came over. Shivers.
Yes that's spooky De--makes you wonder about the currents we pull all this stuff from. (That was not in the original poem, btw, but in the rewrite I did yesterday.) Good to see you posting, and thanks for reading.
Deletejust great poetry HW as usual the beauty and contrasting images really make it jump of the poge
ReplyDeleteYou weave words and emotions dramatically HW
ReplyDeleteSnake and wolf agreed to hold this one back until the right prompt came along, and so here it is. Agree with others, nothing new for me to add but my voice to the chorus - well done, H ~
ReplyDeleteamazing!
ReplyDeleteand then what?!
ReplyDeletethis artist should illustrate all of your poems, Joy.
I was so thankful the birds were released at the end! Brilliant writing, Joy.
ReplyDeleteJoy Ann, those last two stanzas have a lot of significance to me. Beautifully penned as always,
ReplyDeletePamela
Have a great day!
Thank you, pamela. Best thoughts your way.
Delete