Welcome to Poetry Friday! Happy Thanksgiving. This week we are hosted by Ruth at:
http://thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
Thank you Ruth for hosting! I have so enjoyed her poems and her wide knowledge about birds that is found on her blog.
I’ve had a quiet holiday with just my husband, Bart and our son, Matt. Maybe that’s why I have so many leftovers!
Last week I bought a book with a title I couldn’t resist:
I posted two weeks ago about Ravens and Halloween. But I am posting again about ravens because there is more to say after reading more about these very old, very smart birds.
The first of the ten birds in Moss’s book that “changed the world” is the Raven, the largest member of the crow family, with it’s large “pick-ax” bill, iridescent black feathers and remarkable call. This bird has at times helped and then hindered human efforts to survive. They’ve been loved and hated through the centuries.
Moss tells us:
For human and animal hunters, their ability to fly made them assets to survival.
“Only the raven can reconnoitre a large area of ground, locate potential prey and then return to guide the hunters towards the target.”
SYMBOSIS Wolves. Ravens. Early man— hunting buddies for thousands of years. Ravens flew to spot prey. Swift wolves rushed off to the scene, heeding raven intelligence, as did humans: a happy threesome. © Janice Scully 2023
The raven’s fortunes, good and bad, have been in no small part determined by humans. To ancient Norsemen, they were seen as helpers to the Norse God Odin. But after hunting and gathering was left behind, ravens became pests to farmers and herdsmen, eating crops and attacking animals. Humans nearly exterminated them.
Today, ravens flourish. They are almost everywhere, clever enough to survive in diverse habitats.
THE FORTUNES OF THE RAVEN
Ancient Norsemen celebrated
black feathered, bold beaked ravens
that served as the thoughts and memories
of their one-eyed god, Odin.
But when humans discovered farming,
they nearly rid the world of these pests
gobbling their grain.
In plague times, Ravens helped
clear the streets of the dead.
The more the merrier.
A boon to public health.
but later herders battled ravens
that threatened new born animals,
and livelihoods.
Today, birdwatchers admire their call
and clever sky antics.
Numbers have exploded!
Humans change.
Ravens hope for the best.
© Janice Scully 2023
I haven’t finished the book yet but look forward to learning about the extinct dodo, pigeons, the bald eagle, penguins and more. I appreciate lately more than ever my love of reading and the peace it brings me as I curl up with a good book.
Have a great weekend!
My husband loved reading about ravens, would have loved this book, Janice, & the poems you wrote. I enjoyed your poetic mixture of good times/bad times, ravens/humans. It reminds me of the fight we’ve had here in Colorado for reintroducing wolves, the positive changes they’ve made in Yellowstone & those who know that deer are overrunning the environment – no enemies, soon, wolves! I love the “Symbiosis”!
Thanks for sharing, Janice–your bird reading goes so nicely with Ruth’s bird taxonomy post! I have trouble getting excited about birds, but maybe that’s because I’m not getting enough *information*–and now I have plenty about ravens. I wonder if there are ravens around here, doing me favors I don’t even know about….
oooooh, I do love a good new raven fact or story. Thanks for putting wolves with ravens in your poem. I read an article about how the two work together some time ago. It’s fascinating. Happy Thanksgiving to you!
I love histories like this that focus on one thing and look at the whole world through that lens. I’ll put this one on my TBR list!
They way your stanzas go back and forth in the second poem matches the content perfectly. I need to think harder about using placement on the page to add meaning to my poems!
Janice, your raven rummaging has yielded some fascinating information about these birds we love to hate. They are indeed resourceful and resilient. Their ability to adapt is quite amazing. They have become quite urbanized in Australia. My own nirghbourhood has a large population of them. Their cawing is no match for the lyrical birdsong of the magpies, but that doesn’t seem to discourage them. I have a wonderful picture story book you may wish to seek out- ‘Odd Bird Out’ by Helga Bansch. A story of Robert the Raven and celebrating difference. Both your poems, Symbiosis and The fortunes of the Raven possess docupoetry elements. You have neatly threaded historical perspectives through each poem. Your accompanying text provides your readers with greater context. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing this book, Janice. I love all things bird and will need to check it out.
I’m a fan of poems derived from nonfiction sources, so I appreciate what you have done here.
Yikes… they help clear the streets of the dead… thank you, I guess?
I’m opening my heart – a little.
(smiling)
Janice, I learned a lot more about ravens reading this post. (We have lots of ravens in our desert.) It’s so interesting that they help the predators. They know they will get the leftovers after the hunt. I learned a new word here–“reconnoitre” the verb form of reconnaissance. I would be curious to read more about the other birds that changed the world.
Love hearing about the Ravens in both of your poems, and particularly like the flow of your first poem, I think a nonet– and the title fits so well! I’d love to hear more about the dodo bird–thanks for sharing Moss’ book Janice it sounds fascinating!
Janice, I love the ending of your “Fortunes” poem. So many things/people hoping for the best. I’ve often hoped to see a raven here in Minnesota, and I’ve probably seen a few along Lake Superior’s North Shore as they migrate in fall. But pretty much every time I’ve thought, “Ooh, is that a raven?” the answer has been, “No, it’s a crow.” Thanks for your poems and info. Fascinating that they helped clear the dead from the streets during the plague. Yikes.
You and Ruth are a paired set of posts. Thanks for this, Janice!
Janice, it is serendipitous that you and Ruth share the same love with regard to the book you read and the poems you wrote. When I think of ravens I always think of Poe. Your poems share interesting facts and the first poem brought a fit ending.
I saw tonight’s news about Syracuse’s winter storm. My sister got caught in it. I hope you were not.
The snow was beautiful and not enough to keep us in. Makes us slow down. Thanks for reading, Carol, and my best to you and your family.
I didn’t know about this book – thanks! I’ve had a thing for ravens since our Blue Ridge Parkway trip in October, when we saw several. I didn’t realize they were this far south, but they hang out at the higher elevations of the southern Appalachians. I’ve always had a thing for their cousins, crows. Such amazingly intelligent birds they are – love how you capture their complicated relationship with humans (and the more consistent one with wolves) in your poems – thanks!