A poem about a bear to go with my travel journal pages.
Self-Portrait as a Bear
by Donald Hall
Here is a fat animal, a bear
that is partly a dodo.
Ridiculous wings hang at his shoulders
as if they were collarbones
while he plods in the bad brickyards
at the edge of the city, smiling
and eating flowers. He eats them
because he loves them
because they are beautiful
because they love him.
It is eating flowers which makes him so fat.
He carries his huge stomach
over the gutters of damp leaves
in the parking lots in October,
but inside that paunch
he knows there are fields of lupine
and meadows of mustard and poppy.
He encloses sunshine.
Winds bend the flowers
in combers across the valley,
birds hang on the stiff wind,
at night there are showers, and the sun
lifts through a haze every morning
of the summer in the stomach.
sigh. wasn't that goooood?
Meanwhile at Moss Cottage a new addition to the small flock of pigeons who have taken up residence in my oak trees. Look! Pure white with feathered feet, one of which has a tag. I'm in love! Pigeons are handsome birds. They're stout, have the loveliest colored feathers, can fly fast, and are docile and friendly. Like cows really.
This explains why I've started to covertly feed them under the cover of
dark. Cracked corn and other grains. My next door neighbor who just
put the plastic owl on his roof will kill me if he finds out,
but.......he won't! I'm clever and stealthy. The white dove MUST eat
in the manner in which he had grown accustomed before he made his great
escape into the urban jungle and moved into my tree. I know what you're thinking. Feed one and soon you'll have thousands of pigeons roosting on top of Moss Cottage. No I won't! You'll see!
My new bunch of punks are more like lambs than monkeys. I can hardly believe it!
This post is rolling around like a marble in a big box. Going nowhere. Going everywhere. EGADS!
Going to put my feet up and stare into space. And think about lumbering bears with flowers in their bellies. And pigeons, lost doves, and lambs.
Mary Ann,
Did you know chef Jamie Oliver has a magazine, and the July/August issue has a feature on "the little shops and pastelarias behind the elaborately tiled and graffitied façades of Lisbon"? I saw it here: http://simplyphoto.blogspot.com/
Diana
P.S. Journal and white dove both beautiful!
Posted by: Diana | Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 08:43 PM
You deserve to sit and stare in space... Back to school is rough on anybody!
Pretty journal and squab!
Posted by: bkasstle | Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 08:48 PM
I don't know if you'll have time with the new school year, but the local NPR station up here in Seattle land had a show about pigeons this morning http://www.kuow.org/podcast/WeekdayA20090818.mp3
Posted by: RuthSatterlee | Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 09:03 PM
Fantastic post, aren't you the sweetest person!
Posted by: Shelley Noble | Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 11:00 PM
You're a queen in your very own animal kingdom. How fabulous.
Posted by: Tinniegirl | Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 12:47 AM
You are the master hunter! Of poems and pictures; where DO you find these word jewels!?
again, thanks to you
Posted by: susan w | Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 05:56 AM
Your travel journal is turning into one sumptuous little book. I bet the pages feel so amazing to slowly turn while you look over what you've done so far.
Posted by: Shelley | Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 12:09 PM
found you by way of Seth...what a great journal and fun posts!
Posted by: caterina giglio | Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 04:32 PM
Lovely poem, beautiful journal, and as always, wonderfully visual writing. Here in the east, tagged pigeons are often homing or racing pigeons who stop for a few days somewhere to rest, sometimes in our barn. I feed them too! Then they move on. Since you love beautiful writing, anf if you haven't read him yet, try Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game).
Posted by: Carol Kitchell | Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 04:37 PM
Aren't they darlings? Nothing at all wrong, there!
Posted by: Chris | Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 04:41 PM
It's been awhile since I visited, mainly because my focus has shifted. I've missed you and your lovely posts. That Bear poem was sumptuous!
Posted by: Karine Swenson | Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 04:46 PM
Love all the journals.
robin
Posted by: robin dudley howes | Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 09:03 AM
Oh, the bear with the flowers in its tummy; how wonderous. Thank you for letting us live inside your head for a few moments here and there. It is a grand place to visit, full of rich images and far away places to explore. You show us how good life can be. xo
Posted by: judy wise | Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 12:04 PM