RavenSonga journey of poetry and artKaren Pierce GonzalezPoetic Librettos 2024
2Mythic guidegliding on galesRaven scoured the shorelinesfor signs of humans lost in clumps of seaweedand gnarled ropes of kelp,
3She found mealonewashed uponto the sandforgetfulof whom I wasunsinging.
4Her task dauntingshe nearly chipped her beakagainstmy hard-shell refusal of help.
5Ebony feathers dripping wetshe pried my shell openmade me row a canoeacross a global expanse of water -a world I could not circumnavigate alone.
6Before sailingRaven took me to stargazerswho charted maps, studied weather patternsI had to follow to keep my mooring.In the shadows, I listened to watchful conversationswith open-sky constellations. Archer and dogchased solar wind clouds around Venuswhose queenly crown slipped into lunar poolsonly stellar mermaids could swim.Unable to speak, I took notes and tossed peanuts over my shoulder for Raven.
7Because I wanted more than I hadRaven led me into brackish waterswhere over-farmed, over-fished estuarieshad been winnowed for profitnothing stopped saline coastal currentsfrom pushing and pulling my hips forward.In the swoosh, I toppled.
8I was to think of the futurewhere children cordgrass-tied to mangrove busheslining the lagoon, couldn’t followtheir parents into the rising tides.Left behind, they cried, come back!Inlet breezes blew their words away,ruffled Raven’s shiny feathersas sharp-toothed girls and boys learned to untie themselves, search for food. Sun-washed, memories of family faded.Raven shrilled: Who will teach them how to work a water-wheel?
9On cold daysRaven plucked bits of her sable plumagedropped them into the canoe’s forward lookout pointwhere I sat hoping to see where I was going.
10Raven wouldn’t let me berth whereminus tide mudflatsreached out to dock,grabbed sailboatsdragged them to land.Under pressureanchor chains swung,dirt fingers pulledstem to stern,mast poles brokeinto housesbuilt upon piersfor safety.Mud hands twistedgrains of wood -against willthey snappedinto splinterssent out to sea
11Beachedat low tide on Hang-on islandI looked for Ankh — an undersea boywho made bonfires with driftwood.He managed to survive days on dry landand said we were still more than 60 percent water.Even in sleep, he ocean-swam everywhere.I told him Raven scanned every day for signs of our waking up the deep-dream lining of our spines.In that sprawl we could parasail above crushed glass sandsinto the next swell.
12When I was seasickRaven hovered only inches awayto make sure I wasn’t whippedby salt winds into submission.
13She brought me to restin a sheltered harbor;its ceremonial crest a welcome.Sculpted of red cedar:Salmon feeds Bearand —fur once hunted like gold—buck-tooth Beaver sits atop howling Sea Wolf shoulders.Rodent eyes ever on the cove, she scouted for strangers –eager to keep them at bay..
14I was giftedwhen Raven opened me up, the pearl inside had not yet formed.The grit of continents rising and fallingclung to one anotheras if my life depended upon themto grind me into a gem and maybe it did.Maybe, in the end, my journey was to have been to be born a jeweladmired, treasured, held closelyagainst my once hopeful hurt-radiant heart whose chambers faced the four directionson a prayer wheel: East South West North.Above and below, vast cloud-skies of aquacompressed the sorrow woundsof having not been seen or heardas I see and hear myself now.In this Raven-mirrored worldsalt water tears taste like honeyand far away moonlight ladlescrisp blue tints and toasted red huesnot known beforeonto a paint palette - my own hands the brushes.
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16Gratefulthis legendary bird spotted meclammed up, unable to set myself free,I built her a totem.Wrapped a four-foot-tall pine trunkin purple-yellow electrical coils and tiny white lights that in darkness starlit her fabled beautyand I sang:Raven wings lifted my silencesound and sight soared across wavestowards new ports of life.
17Karen Pierce Gonzalezaward-winning writer and artistIntuitively, Karen’s visual work focuses primarily on elements found in nature. To date, 75+ art works, including collages in City Companions, a hybrid collaboration with poet Marcelle Newbold that recently won Hedgehog Poetry Press's Little Black Book competition, have appeared in numerous literary journals/magazines. Seven pieces have premiered as cover art for publications such as The Chestnut Review and Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art. A 2022 National Arts Program (USA) feature artist, her 3D assemblage pieces have been shown in several Pacific West Coast galleries and museums.Her award winning poetry, prose, plays, essays and articles have appeared in numerous traditional and digital media platforms including journals, newspapers, podcasts, and fringe festivals. Her chapbooks include Coyote in the Basket of My Ribs (Kelsay Books), True Northand Sightings from a Star Wheel (Origami Poems Project) Down River with Li Po (Black Cat Poetry Press), and Moon Kissed, Earth Wrought, Vision Drunk.(Bottlecap Press). Forthcoming Speak Up / Speak Out (Four Feathers Press) and Sun and Moon Wired Together (Midsummer Dream House). Her hybrid collections (art and poetry) include Mountains of Ocean: 10 Waves (Poetic Librettos, Four Feathers Press), RavenSong, (Poetic Librettos, Four Feathers Press). Several of her art and poetry films have also been published on GAS: Poetry, Art and Music..With degrees in creative writing, anthropological linguistics, and folklore, she is also a former journalist and folklore columnist who currently publishes a quarterly Get Ekphrastic with Folk Art blogzine (FolkHeart Press) and co-hosts North Bay Poetics.And she gets to do all that in the verdant rural landscape of San Francisco’s North Bay.More: Linktr.ee/KPGFolkHeart