by ~ Tessa Priest
Paintings which came from koan practice… snake appeared in my dream and then coiled onto wooden boards
I finished the paintings in the middle of the dark night and the next morning opened an old edition of Resurgence and found this poem.
Spring is coming in many places in the world as we are asked to quieten and be more still.
Our snakes may be readying to sleep in the cold, and yet snake appears – perhaps in our Spring we too may emerge with a lithe newness and a transformed earth body…
Skin
Everything has a voice, even the skin
Laurie Kutchins –
the black snake left beside the house
the day the golden tulips bloomed
and overpowered the sun. Never seen,
that snake leaves its skin behind
each spring lie a secret gift
no longer dark or urgent without
its body. Oh
look at me, I’ve grown
and grown more beautiful, its voice
thralls from the grass, all
its language new and moving
in the skin like thunder
gathering into a noon
yet to form:
Have you heard me
down in the ductwork
of your house
living on mice?
Have you lived yet
a day without fear?
If not skin, what
will you come to shed?
chosen for Resurgence magazine March/April 2009
“powerful poetry sings of the hidden complexity of things”.
If lives are fraught and contradictory, fraught with unexpected turns that result in unruliness…The god Lir (Ireland) created the world by speaking the names of everything in it. Because he had only half a tongue, his words were only half understood. Half of creation, therefore, remained unspoken.
That’s why we need poets: to “sing the hidden side of things” (Andrea Hollander Budy)
Blessings to you in this time of transformation with its quietude. May you wriggle anew as the spring unfurls – here it is autumn
Warmth
Tessa Priest