2011.01.16 — 3 Poems from News of the Universe: Poems of Twofold Consciousness

I have been reading a nice collection of poetry and writing that I find particularly engaging. I may not necessarily like all that I read in the collection, but all the writing has an intensity and honesty that is engaging and challenging and that I feel compelled to wrestle with. See Miss Me at http://forestsfollow.blogspot.com/. There I have been reading and re-reading the last several days of posts.

I particularly like:

My body

It tries to steal me
Away in the night, further
than I want to go

and

Filled to my wings

Filled to my wings
    the earthen weight hanging in
my hummingbird core

And My Body, in particular, reminded me of the feel of some of the poems Robert Bly

included in his book News of the Universe: Poems of Twofold Consciousness. So much so, that I cracked open the book, and was delighted to rediscover and reacquaint myself with some friends I haven't seen in a long while.

So, from News of the Universe, three poems that feel like those of Miss Me's:

Sometimes

Sometimes, when a bird cries out,
Or the wind sweeps through a tree,
Or a dog howls in a far off farm,
I hold still and listen a long time.

My soul turns and goes back to the place
Where, a thousand forgotten years ago,
The bird and the blowing wind
Were like me, and were my brothers.

My soul turns into a tree,

And an animal, and a cloud bank.

Then changed and odd it comes home

And asks me questions.
       What should I reply (p86)?

Hermann Hesse (translated by Robert Bly)

and:

Differences

coughing up blood
before the sun rose.

i spit out the wind
and all turns into
what might be expected
on a rainy day. sleep.

i dreamed of an animal
with its teeth shining
so greatly . . .

and we have heard from
each other once or twice.
we seek to see who is god (p200).

Ray Young Bear

and:

The Great Sea

The great sea

Has sent me adrift,

It moves me as the weed in a great river,

Earth and the great weather move me,

Have carried me away,

And move my inward parts with joy (p257).

Eskimo Shaman Woman quoted by Rasmussen