tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post3881256030366546729..comments2023-12-27T22:26:20.552-05:00Comments on synch-ro-ni-zing: Poem: Beating flamesRuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14204074161539605133noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-42861342188770033802011-12-21T06:25:32.294-05:002011-12-21T06:25:32.294-05:00crackling, I like that. Love the crow art too.crackling, I like that. Love the crow art too.Stratozhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10148600260976577216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-44359029077295495862011-12-20T19:29:48.771-05:002011-12-20T19:29:48.771-05:00Thank you, my good friends. This is killing me, to...Thank you, <b>my good friends</b>. This is killing me, to feel that I am not responding to each of you as I want to. I cannot do justice to your comments: I am a bad English major, and I don't know the mythology of the crow, though I loved "Quoth the Raven . . . <i>nevermore</i> . . ."<br /><br />What I do know is that I had many moments of bliss after this crow entered my consciousness the other morning while it rained. This was a new way of feeling the crow, which has been a nuisance to me before this autumn. But in my walks lately, he calls and warns the others that I have come. And maybe on this morning he was calling to me too, and he had prepared my heart to listen inside this window.Ruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14204074161539605133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-55086161659213390652011-12-20T15:32:25.227-05:002011-12-20T15:32:25.227-05:00Oh, that trickster crow. Is he stealing the langua...Oh, that trickster crow. Is he stealing the language of the heart, or sharing it? Whatever, this is a gorgeous gorgeous poem with a gorgeous gorgeous illustration, and I now count it among my favorites.<br /><br />Hope your pain is abating somewhat...dshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07616750784052488695noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-49139225153302063092011-12-20T05:28:05.880-05:002011-12-20T05:28:05.880-05:00I think of you writing this out of a necessity tha...I think of you writing this out of a necessity that is only made more distinct by physical torture, which is really the way of shamanic initiation -- crazy folk whom the spirits abducted and took down to the bowels of the earth where they were dismembered bone by bone and then reassembled with an extra bone inserted -- bone of the fish, the bear, the crow, become the daemon or genus or totem that channeled healing through song. Our pain is the cast iron so resonant with fire -- the song of the gods -- "crackling," as you say, with "the language of the heart." A language which must have survived Pushkin's translation of Sir Walter Scott's translation of an old Celtic song ... <br /><br />Make me recall Joseph Campbell saying that Arthur of the Grail Cycle was originally a Celtic god, and before that probably a bear-spirit -- his name is really <em>Artus</em> or "bear" -- and makes me think of that altar at the former entrance to the paleolithic Chauvet Cave where a cave bear's skull was set on a rock facing the entrance. A 30, 50-thousand-year-old mythologem surviving in the durable language of the heart ... Fine, fine poem. - BrendanBrendanhttp://blueoran.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-57486880529877212292011-12-19T12:38:04.058-05:002011-12-19T12:38:04.058-05:00I'm so sorry to read that you're not well ...I'm so sorry to read that you're not well and I hope you'll soon be restored to normal flexibility.<br /><br />The things we do to keep the reading blogworld happy!<br /><br />The above poem is a special one for me, you are making me see crows in quite a different light. I see crows as rapacious, raucous, greedy and harsh; to see them as flame filled creatures spreading the language of the heart is is an idea I will try to get used to.Frikohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04277167831642088694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-11918371416158894682011-12-19T11:57:34.679-05:002011-12-19T11:57:34.679-05:00i understand this poem. =)i understand this poem. =)renayehttp://renaye.nutang.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-70968738297592635792011-12-19T09:47:31.315-05:002011-12-19T09:47:31.315-05:00Lovely... All...
I am rather fascinated with rav...Lovely... All...<br /><br />I am rather fascinated with ravens/crows........ For whatever reason...<br /><br />Gentle Christmas hugs,<br /><br /><i><b>"Christmas won't be Christmas<br />without any presents."</b></i><br /><br /><i>~~Opening line of Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women"</i>Auntie sezzzzzz...https://www.blogger.com/profile/16170232476926222740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-78689583885994530242011-12-19T00:16:05.002-05:002011-12-19T00:16:05.002-05:00What a language they sometimes crackle.What a language they sometimes crackle.Amy @ Soul Dipperhttp://souldipper.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-84059258883527907212011-12-18T23:48:51.454-05:002011-12-18T23:48:51.454-05:00Lovely imagery, Ruth. The first three lines tug at...Lovely imagery, Ruth. The first three lines tug at my heart, more so with the infamous Seattle rains making there presence felt with a vengeance!Sumanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11251497690649264925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-74707661265150686892011-12-18T23:04:49.987-05:002011-12-18T23:04:49.987-05:00Such beautiful words my friend!Such beautiful words my friend!Reenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17813380986631007962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-55471630886841992922011-12-18T19:47:23.321-05:002011-12-18T19:47:23.321-05:00So absolutely beautiful..so strong... so full of i...So absolutely beautiful..so strong... so full of intense emotion.. I love it!!!Gwen Buchananhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13410235558740636534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-5775362294175935262011-12-18T16:56:32.982-05:002011-12-18T16:56:32.982-05:00The rich mythology of the crow, and all the litera...The rich mythology of the crow, and all the literary reverberations (do you know Ted Hughes's 'Crow'?) 'The beating flame'. 'The language of the heart'. Yes. I really like these micro-poems of yours, Ruth — small in word-space, but huge in heart-space.The Solitary Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11284354541952038339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-41737909966349692372011-12-18T13:14:22.372-05:002011-12-18T13:14:22.372-05:00'The language of the heart'. It says it al...'The language of the heart'. It says it all. Beautiful!Marciehttp://www.marciescudderphotography.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-15880100838966749292011-12-18T13:13:14.795-05:002011-12-18T13:13:14.795-05:00I have been catching up here and what a calming pl...I have been catching up here and what a calming place it is to visit.<br />I love your poems so much and the piece on George Whitman was a delight.Cait O'Connorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04569760764766505179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-61000870857242022542011-12-18T11:46:47.076-05:002011-12-18T11:46:47.076-05:00Rich in words and texture, your crows crackle in t...Rich in words and texture, your crows crackle in the soft morning light of winter.<br /><br />Nice. Very very nice.Louise Gallagherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13522775693728655487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-64350116733808396622011-12-18T11:00:35.184-05:002011-12-18T11:00:35.184-05:00Watching crows is a pastime of mine out here in th...Watching crows is a pastime of mine out here in the sticks, also--they do seem to have force as a symbol--often relentlessly chased off by our mockingbirds, their presence is almost always fierce-seeming, assertive, noisy, and provocative. Your poem invests this bird(whose cousins canbe taught to literally speak the language of humans) with all that black certainty and elegance, and also, I think, hints at something bigger and different at work within us as rain falls and we preserve an inner fire.hedgewitchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13090696134322515899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-7518130613475200082011-12-18T10:44:21.638-05:002011-12-18T10:44:21.638-05:00What a wonderful woodcut by Bilibin! If you found ...What a wonderful woodcut by Bilibin! If you found it before the poem was written, it obviously inspired your words.<br />If you found it after the poem was written, it inspired your resolve for beauty... both backwards and forwards in time.Montaghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00017648070522030951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-16378532836311302672011-12-18T10:22:27.507-05:002011-12-18T10:22:27.507-05:00Wonderful imagery, Ruth, and I am won over by the ...Wonderful imagery, Ruth, and I am won over by the first and last lines of the poem alone, which standing together, have their own meaning, "Rain falls . . . the language of the heart."Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03959953035812596907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21312708.post-47869845437243461822011-12-18T09:57:20.992-05:002011-12-18T09:57:20.992-05:00The crow or raven has such a rich background in my...The crow or raven has such a rich background in mythology. Love the illustration.<br /><br />Each of your three stanzas pulses with such well-chosen verbs and adjectives. It's easy to "hear" the rapid heartbeat, and so the rain falling; that "raucous call"; and the wonderful "consuming, crackling/language of the heart".Maureenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13290283101378474845noreply@blogger.com