Thursday, April 22, 2010

Gaining a Perspective on Earth Day

She stood
thus, I wrapped fleshy
tendrils about scratchy
bark and consoled her
for all the trees I imagined,
rightly or wrongly,
were sacrificed to rusty
notions of progress
neatly packaged in
emporium form;
the saffron leaves
and peppery roots
lost to dusty
reverberations.

That's when
the crow came,
glowing eyes above
fierce wings, his caw
hinting at mockery:
"Don't flinch,
I'm here to help,
and you'll not get far
imposing such
improper intentions."

"The trick," he went on
reassuring me,
"is to always
stand apart.

"Yesterday's sigh becomes
tomorrow's squall
unless today's kept
at a distance.

"Fly up,
but not too fast, or
the only thing you'll feel
is dizzy."

And that,
without another word,
is just what
he did.

11 comments:

Francis Scudellari said...

I know it's a dangerous thing for me to attempt the perspective of the crow, but I'm hoping human being will correct me on anything I got wrong :).

Jenny said...

A dynamic FoS explosion this week. The timing seems in tune with the Icelandic volcano.

This part is stunning:

"the saffron leaves
and peppery roots
lost to dusty
reverberations"

I enjoy the narration of this piece very much. Crows are crafty creatures.

Jeremy Blomberg said...

the trick is to always stand apart...i like that, especially with the reassuring interjection. reminds me of the politics behind environmentalism (or maybe i've just been watching way too much news lately). nice poem.

Anonymous said...

I had a long conversation with a friend the other day about the existence of progress and if trees (in that case) should be sacrificed for it. It was one of these pub conversations which ended in the usual confusion, so we never reached a conclusion.

Anyway, a wonderful Earth Day poem. Thank you.

Thomas Sheridan said...

This is ace. Crows are just bad teenagers with wings.

Megan Duffy said...

"Yesterday's sigh becomes
tomorrow's squall
unless today's kept
at a distance."

Just so.

Wonderful work, Francis.

The Scrybe said...

I echo what it says above. Yesterday's sigh... :D

Jenny said...

Oh, and I love the crow image! Adorable. :)

Anders Enochsson said...

It is lovely to see how poems and paintings begin to melt together here on FoS. This poem sparkle; and your crow does it justice.

human being said...

crows never correct... 'cause they believe in correlation...

:)

this is a masterpiece...
you know mother earth and all his children very well... especially the ambitious one: MAN...


Francis...
did you know that crows' tricks have got a double nature?


T h e t r i c k
i s t o a l w a y s
s t a n d a p a r t .



:D

Francis Scudellari said...

Thanks all, I was worried the crow drawing might look a bit ghoulish.

hb, I've gotten too familiar with man, and am now trying to get in the heads of the other creatures a little more often.

Those double-nature tricks are the best of all :)