Think I'm Going for a Walk Now
So I stumbled upon a file I have not read in some time. It's my Senior Creative Writing Portfolio. I called the thing--what ended up being a 100 page monstrosity of fiction and poetry broken up into 12 sections--"A Girl's Guide to Signs and Wonders." The cover was a woodcut relief print I made of a woman dancing with a bear.
So let me know what you think... here is the introduction and section 1
An Introduction to Augury
It is not the swallows that frame
their perfect geometries, laying windows
into a blank winter sky, but I.
It is not the goshawk that fits
its bowels, glistening inlays
of organ and seed corn, but I.
And if you have come in search of the one
who draws your fate, return to the birds: It is not I.
-Gary Hawkins, “The Oracle”
The summer of 2008 was characterized by snakes. During a particular two-week period, every time I went outside, I saw at least one snake, though typically I saw three or four. And they were not snakes trying to hide from me or snakes in the process of fleeing; they were snakes strewn across my path, recumbent and calm. They lay on the pavement in front of my car, rested in the tree roots that curled crooked fingers around the hiking trail I used as a shortcut. I took to stooping over them, watching them watch me, asking them what they wanted. When they did not answer-they never answered-I would step over them.
I had always suspected that when something persists in my life, I should give it more than a passing notice. I would not hesitate to say that I had not really been aware enough at the time to have a practical example of this notion, but the afternoon I was working in the strawberry patch and a brown snake the thickness of my finger came out of the grass and draped itself across my boot, I knew something was knocking very loudly on my door.
It was time, I gathered, to shed the old skin, and I had not realized it until I had shimmied and scraped my way out and looked back to see that deflated, me-shaped shroud abandoned on my path. I let a lot of things go that summer, and it was not easy-especially the alcohol; that was a hard one-but the skin underneath was so fresh, so pink that I immediately set out to callus it in ways that brought me joy, ways that gave me dignity.
Augury, the interpretation of omens, has the potential to shape so much of our lives, and it begs a question: did the snakes portend a change in my life or did I change in response to them. That notion complicates the blissful simplicity of a much easier perspective. Perhaps beyond the film that covers what we all see and do and believe, there is a clockwork ticking away.
I haven't the answer. I do, however, have the opinion that the possibility can add a dash of extraordinary to any ordinary situation.
For this reason, I have opted to shape my work around a theme of supernatural presences in otherwise mundane settings. More specifically, I have organized this collection around system of augury that entails counting the number of crows in a murder and basing prophecies on the idea associated with that number:
I. Sorrow, An Unhappy Event, Change for the Worse, Loss or Death
II. Joy, Surprise, Change for the Better, the Finding of Something
III. Birth of a Girl, Significant Event Regarding a Daughter
IV. Birth of a Boy, Significant Event Regarding a Son
V. Silver, Something Costly, a Positive Transaction
VI. Gold, Wealth, Envy or Greed, Occasionally a Negative Transaction
VII. Something of Spiritual Significance, A Secret, Witchcraft, Spellcasting
VIII. Something Profound, Death, Dying, a Glimpse of Heaven, a Journey
IX. Something Sensual, Passion, Forbidden Delight, Corruption/Temptation
X. Something Extreme, Overwhelming Sensation, Something Paid in Full
XI. Uncertainty, Waiting, Wanting, a Choice
XII. Fulfillment, a Fruitful Labor, Something Completed, an End to a Problem or an Answer to a Question
This is a traditional list from a traditional interpretation. Who wrote it, I do not know. And that touch of mystery makes it all the more compelling, I feel.
What the Mockingbird Said
I heard it in the yard,
in the hydrangea pom-poms
that grow in a different color depending on the soil.
It was the vain
Chickadee-dee-dee-dee-of the Chickadee
Then it was the provincial
Teakettle-teakettle-teakettle-teakettle-tea-of the Wren
Then the demanding
Jay! Jay!-of the Bluejay
Then the unassuming
Chip! Chip!-of the Cardinal
And the meow of a long dead cat
and the creeeek of the door when he left
and the gag and splash of a woman vomiting in the grass
and the crack of a car back-firing
or was it a gunshot?
The riiing of an unanswered phone call
The squeaksqueak of the springs in the bed.
The crackling skillet full of pancakes for one,
and hush of a woman watching the birds.
So let me know what you think... here is the introduction and section 1
An Introduction to Augury
It is not the swallows that frame
their perfect geometries, laying windows
into a blank winter sky, but I.
It is not the goshawk that fits
its bowels, glistening inlays
of organ and seed corn, but I.
And if you have come in search of the one
who draws your fate, return to the birds: It is not I.
-Gary Hawkins, “The Oracle”
The summer of 2008 was characterized by snakes. During a particular two-week period, every time I went outside, I saw at least one snake, though typically I saw three or four. And they were not snakes trying to hide from me or snakes in the process of fleeing; they were snakes strewn across my path, recumbent and calm. They lay on the pavement in front of my car, rested in the tree roots that curled crooked fingers around the hiking trail I used as a shortcut. I took to stooping over them, watching them watch me, asking them what they wanted. When they did not answer-they never answered-I would step over them.
I had always suspected that when something persists in my life, I should give it more than a passing notice. I would not hesitate to say that I had not really been aware enough at the time to have a practical example of this notion, but the afternoon I was working in the strawberry patch and a brown snake the thickness of my finger came out of the grass and draped itself across my boot, I knew something was knocking very loudly on my door.
It was time, I gathered, to shed the old skin, and I had not realized it until I had shimmied and scraped my way out and looked back to see that deflated, me-shaped shroud abandoned on my path. I let a lot of things go that summer, and it was not easy-especially the alcohol; that was a hard one-but the skin underneath was so fresh, so pink that I immediately set out to callus it in ways that brought me joy, ways that gave me dignity.
Augury, the interpretation of omens, has the potential to shape so much of our lives, and it begs a question: did the snakes portend a change in my life or did I change in response to them. That notion complicates the blissful simplicity of a much easier perspective. Perhaps beyond the film that covers what we all see and do and believe, there is a clockwork ticking away.
I haven't the answer. I do, however, have the opinion that the possibility can add a dash of extraordinary to any ordinary situation.
For this reason, I have opted to shape my work around a theme of supernatural presences in otherwise mundane settings. More specifically, I have organized this collection around system of augury that entails counting the number of crows in a murder and basing prophecies on the idea associated with that number:
I. Sorrow, An Unhappy Event, Change for the Worse, Loss or Death
II. Joy, Surprise, Change for the Better, the Finding of Something
III. Birth of a Girl, Significant Event Regarding a Daughter
IV. Birth of a Boy, Significant Event Regarding a Son
V. Silver, Something Costly, a Positive Transaction
VI. Gold, Wealth, Envy or Greed, Occasionally a Negative Transaction
VII. Something of Spiritual Significance, A Secret, Witchcraft, Spellcasting
VIII. Something Profound, Death, Dying, a Glimpse of Heaven, a Journey
IX. Something Sensual, Passion, Forbidden Delight, Corruption/Temptation
X. Something Extreme, Overwhelming Sensation, Something Paid in Full
XI. Uncertainty, Waiting, Wanting, a Choice
XII. Fulfillment, a Fruitful Labor, Something Completed, an End to a Problem or an Answer to a Question
This is a traditional list from a traditional interpretation. Who wrote it, I do not know. And that touch of mystery makes it all the more compelling, I feel.
What the Mockingbird Said
I heard it in the yard,
in the hydrangea pom-poms
that grow in a different color depending on the soil.
It was the vain
Chickadee-dee-dee-dee-of the Chickadee
Then it was the provincial
Teakettle-teakettle-teakettle-teakettle-tea-of the Wren
Then the demanding
Jay! Jay!-of the Bluejay
Then the unassuming
Chip! Chip!-of the Cardinal
And the meow of a long dead cat
and the creeeek of the door when he left
and the gag and splash of a woman vomiting in the grass
and the crack of a car back-firing
or was it a gunshot?
The riiing of an unanswered phone call
The squeaksqueak of the springs in the bed.
The crackling skillet full of pancakes for one,
and hush of a woman watching the birds.