Hi Mari-Lou,
Thanks for the heads up on artists colonies.
I was sitting waiting for my train this morning and was watching an Australian
Raven - the bird commonly known as a crow (Mark Weiss knows what I'm talking
about) - hopping from the opposite platform and then to the wires. it had been
quiet then out came its usual call which echoes across many Australian suburbs
a strong caw caw then the slightly melancholic trailing off. I don't know if
that's how I write (some have accused me of the melancholic) but I do a bit of
trailing over the suburbs. Although the call isn't sweet nor even 'liquid'
like the currawong, it brings with it memories and a sound of 'home'.
On this page, if you scroll down, you'll find an Australian Raven's song:
http://www.shades-of-night.com/aviary/sounds/sounds.html
I'd definitely like to hear yours aloud and the great horned owl - what a muse
that sounds like. Also to hear the ice/snow - I like the sound of that. It's
good to get out of one's own syntax (or can that be done?).
Thanks,
Jill
> Jill,
> Saskatchewan has some fabulous writers/artists colonies. Was just at St.
> Pete's, a monastery in the middle of the prairies in the middle of
> February. A heathen in a hermitage (rustic cabin on the edge of the
> woods). Had to snowshoe back and forth to the main buildings for food,
> showers, conversation. Great for gluts and for poetry. Drafts of 25
> poems in 12 days. Here is one of them. Still a snapshot as I haven't
> touched it since....I think it really needs to be "read" aloud.
>
> Cheers,
> Mari-Lou
>
> P.S. The muse was a great horned owl.
>
> Hermitage Poem - Day 12
>
> Owl Syntax
>
> Nightwalk back under moon's crescent grin
> creak of steps on snow hardened by wind
> ideas for poems seep out through soles
> with each brittle breath of crystals inhaled.
>
> Imperfect rhyme, non-iambic
> swoosh swoosh of snowshoes
> interrupted by the owl's
> Oohw hooo, Hoo oowh, Hoo
>
> I answer Hoo, Hoo, oohw Hoo
> wondering if the lost syllable
> means anything personal, unsure
> of owl vocabulary, syntax,
> Oohw Whoo Hoo
> he calls back, three plaintive syllables
> I answer, too ardently perhaps
> yet it goes on like this down the path
> around the corner through the trees
> call and response, two creatures speaking
> our yearning across species, the language
> of night and sound.
>
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