How to Feed a Horse

Janice Dewey

• Editorial: Crooked Hearts Press
• Año: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781597098670
• Categoría: Literatura
• Categoría: Mujeres en la poesía

How to Feed a Horse is a manuscript in three parts: One, "Ranch Poems, " activities, contemplations, awareness of the creek environment. Two, "Numerology, " disparate poems that invite us to consider the absurd in our language, politics, history, and human relationships. Three, "Her(e), " conversations with a network of women, some imagined, some historic, some intimate. The author's preoccupations with climate change and our deteriorating planetary environment surface as she gives herself over to be witness to the landscape, its decline and perseverance, its glory and rich legacy. The poems are also love poems; they show the ecstasy and shock of the now.

Chapter one

Home

Canyon wren has begun another nest inside the ranch house

northeast corner of a window sill

black and white dog hair

longer silvery hair of dog owner

mattress liningleavestiny twigs

all improve the lost art of reading—that wordy network

of pleasure and contemplation

the seeing and the sitting, coming and going arrangement

tending to earth birthdays and then the feeding

with her long bill and mate’s falling soprano call

canyon wren flits and dives in and out of the cabin made from

creek trees

through her secret hole under the eaves

she’s begun a new novel, a bildungsroman

Chapter two

Canyon Wren Moving, Transfer and Storage

The nest had disappearedno tracebut found on the floor

the tender center made of dog and human hair

inside the second door the wren flew and flit flew and flit

buzzing with perk

from bathroom to kitchen and out through the ceiling to bright

foliageand in again to scoot the floors and hop from pan

to pan

the woman sat in meditation at the window

the oriole nest that had hung high as decoration over her seat

had fallen to the floor

fluffy dog hair of Zoe, life magnificentgorgeous coyote dog

with black eyeliner

was missing inside the woven orb

Chapter three

Sound Pillows

The sky opened at 5:20 with orange pillows

cool breeze on her face

then the song, the cascading soprano waterfall

a river through canyon walls of operatic proportion

the song was right here

right here in the house

Chapter four

Electricity

After she fed the dogs and exited the kitchen she glanced

toward the ceiling atilted ’50s light shade centering the wallboard

the nest!

the bird simply tweezered the whole production and moved it

from porch window to living room

the fire made in the antique Ashley stove warmed the whole

familystock dogstiny brown speckled eggsand woman

with long silver hair

Chapter five

Moon

She napped dreamily that afternoon as the sky darkened and the

wind sang through the canyons in ripeness

branches and leaves swayed a hula made from desert

rain forest in preparation for the deluge

it would not come till a moon slice past midnight and ferociously

ping the tin roof for an hour

ta-tamp tamp ta-tamp ta-tamp tamp ta-tamp

ta-tamp tamp

Chapter six

The End & Return

a virtually unstudied bird
—Tucson Audubon office

now the nest destroyed

like the year before and the year before

(the one inside the Weber grill lid outside)

dispersal destruction fury

other builders out there, other pairs, other pulsating lovers

ovum hardshell fusion chick

fledged

hopping the dance somewhere

moonwalking a tin roofflying the world

Water Wonder

In Arizona summer clouds cover and soften the land and skin

a few dropsa few dropswhile in North Dakota a two-pound hailstone

gets stored in a freezer for show

oceans lakes and rivers poisoned daily by war and transportation

miningmedicinenuclear fissionand cow pies

what meaning does the dog find with her radar ears and laser nose (the one
who didn’t get hit by the killer hail)

one more chew of green grassone more drink from the creek

Chama

Up the brown curve of earth then a shift

to jagged ridge and downward into green river swirl

The majesty of red dirt and green water touch

her hands dipped from a crouch, the muscles in the

thighs taut and off balance feels good

icy green water from the red mountains promise more

green like verdolagas and alfalfa

good mammalian food and then a rise up, a stand...

Índice

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Bull’s Eye
• Ranch Triptych
• Coyote Dog
• CANYON WREN
• Chapter one: Home
• Chapter two: Canyon Wren Moving, Transfer and Storage
• Chapter three: Sound Pillows
• Chapter four: Electricity
• Chapter five: Moon
• Chapter six: The End & Return
• Water Wonder
• Chama
• Fluorescence
• Conjuring
• Late Fall
• (tiny opera of grief)
• San Juan’s Day
• How to feed a horse
• Little Sure Shot
• NUMEROLOGY
• One
• Two
• Three
• Four
• Five
• Six
• Seven
• Eight
• Nine
• Ten
• Eleven
• Twelve
• Thirteen
• Fourteen
• Fifteen
• Sixteen
• HER(E)
• Now 70
• Sophie
• Immigrants
• Etymology Tree
• Royal Whim
• Translation
• How to repair with eyes complex enough they know in all directions
• Solution
• Elder
• Story
• Ambush
• Gender-flipping on Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday)
• Guidebook to the Maladies
• For Barbara Allen
• Red Juice
• Closure
• Even grief gets hungry and demands more grief.
• Defining the Rules
• Transfiguration
• Would a prophet undo clutter in the writing?