Poetry Friday: Owl Feathers

A few Poetry Fridays ago, I wrote about a bear that had been visiting my dreams.

Maybe something similar has happened to you. Every morning, while the tea is steeping, a blue-jay comes to rest on the butterfly bush outside your kitchen window. Or you keep seeing red-tail hawks circling every time you take your dog for a walk. For three nights, you dream about jellyfish. Perhaps, suddenly, you notice foxes everywhere -- in advertisements, songs, peeking out from the raspberry bushes in your back yard, on people's license plates (1FXY LDY).

When this happens to me, I begin to wonder if the animal is trying to tell me something.

A few weeks ago, Sam and I were walking in a nearby field.

Sam says, "What will we find today?"

We found two feathers, a few yards apart.

Guesses were: hawk, turkey, and owl.

Research and Facebook friends confirmed these were probably barred owl feathers. Exciting! Hadn't I heard an owl call earlier that month, when I woke at 5 am to drive Julia to a field hockey tournament?

That night, I was cleaning out an old file of papers. A greeting card, opened but still in its envelope, fell out of the file. It was from my favorite professor from graduate school, Muriel Becker. Muriel was a legend in the New Jersey education scene, but she was also a huge fan of good writing, particularly science fiction and fantasy. Because Muriel passed away many years ago, I checked the postmark. The card had been sent in 1993. Nice, I thought.

[There is a literary award in Muriel's name. One of the winners passed away this week, poet and children's novelist Walter Dean Myers.]

It wasn't until the next morning that I connected card to feathers.

A card from Muriel, sent around the time
of my graduation from Montclair State University,
where she trained generations of English educators.

I choose to believe that the owl feathers and card were meant to tell me that Muriel's spirit is around. I'd been thinking about a work-in-progress during my walk with Sam. Maybe this was Muriel's way of saying: I like this idea! Keep working on it.

The practice of taking nature walks is a nourishing one for me, as a human being and as a writer. That's why I'm such a fan of Amy Ludwig Vanderwater's book FOREST HAS A SONG.

Cybil Poetry Award winner! Available at B&N.

The poems in Amy's book take a path through a year of seasons. Along the way, the reader finds seeds, fossils, and ferns. There are things to see, hear, smell, and touch on this nature walk. And there are animal visitors.

I'd like to thank Amy for giving me permission to post a poem from FOREST HAS A SONG today.

First Flight
by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater

Mommy, I'm scared to be this high.
     All owls are scared on their first try.

My tail feathers feel so tingly with fear.
     You can do it. Calm down. Careful now. Steer.

I can't see a thing through all this black.
     Just go to Spruce and come right back.

FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP--WHOOOSH!
FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP--SWOOOSH!

Look, Mom! I made it! Wow! I can fly!
     I knew you could. You were born for sky.

From FOREST HAS A SONG (Clarion, 2013)
Posted with permission of the author.

Do you think the feathers Sam and I found tumbled from the sky when a juvenile owl took its first flight? Or maybe they are Momma Owl's feathers, shaken off as she followed, just-far-enough behind.

As I transcribed Amy's poem today, the words of the poem had a different meaning for me. I'd been feeling like the little owl -- afraid of trying something new with my writing project. And there was the memory or spirit of my mentor, Muriel, saying "You can do it... You were born for sky."

Thanks for taking a walk with me
on Poetry Friday. We're celebrating
Independence Day and
honoring the work
of Walter Dean Myers
at Heidi's blog this week.
Stop by My Juicy Little Universe
for more poetry links.

If you'd like to learn more about animal spirits or animal medicine, I recommend the book ANIMAL SPEAK: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small, by Ted Andrews.

Poetry Friday: A Child of the Mountains

Lately I've been dreaming about bears. One bear, in particular.

Brown she-bear from Alaska in Pictures.

I could explain this, my bears-on-the brain. There was a bear attack in my brother's Orlando, Florida neighborhood a few months after he came home to a surprise guest: a bear in his garage -- raiding the back-up refrigerator.

Recently, black bears  have been sighted near where I live in central Maryland.

But my bear is friendly. Like a hiking companion who joins me on long, outdoor walks. I'm not sure why she's visiting my thoughts, but I'm not complaining.

I've used animals as a poetry prompt before, to help elementary schoolers write about their emotions in a way that feels safe. You can read the lesson here (sorry for the wonky formatting).

Today, I'm loving this bear-poem from Gary Snyder.

this poem is for bear 
by Gary Snyder

"As for me I am a child of the god of the mountains."

A bear down under the cliff.
She is eating huckleberries.
They are ripe now 
Soon it will snow, and she 
Or maybe he, will crawl into a hole
And sleep. You can see
Huckleberries in bearshit if you
Look, this time of year
If I sneak up on the bear
It will grunt and run
The others had all gone down
From the blackberry brambles, but one girl
Spilled her basket, and was picking up her
Berries in the dark.
A tall man stood in the shadow, took her arm,
Led her to his home. He was a bear.
In a house under the mountain
She gave birth to slick dark children 
With sharp teeth, and lived in the hollow
Mountain many years.

          snare a bear: call him out:
honey-eater
forest apple
light-foot
Old man in the fur coat, Bear! come out!
Die of your own choice!
Grandfather black-food!
                   this girl married a bear
Who rules in the mountains, Bear!

Read the rest of the poem here.

I love the way that animals -- in our dreams, in mythology and storytelling -- are keepers of the animal-nature in human beings.

I hope the only bears you see on Poetry Friday are in your dreams. For more poetry posts, visit this week's host, Jone at Check It Out.