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Guidance — Observation - Lisa Fannen

from Faultline by Lisa Fannen and...

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  • Faultline is a collection of poetry published by Active Distribution/Sto Citas, November 2018. The poems are political and personal (and an examination of where those territories meet), observational and contemplative, and travel through explorations of social inequality, police violations, street homelessness in the US, environmental disaster, intimate experiences of queer sexuality, rites of passage and bereavement, also the power of guidance and renewal. Paperback, 127 pages.
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about

Guidance — Observation — The children’s rhyme about Magpies stands as a legacy of older practices: Ornithomancy (modern term from Greek ornis "bird" and manteia “divination”; take omens from the flight and cries of birds), is the practice of reading omens from the actions of birds. Scrying, also called ‘seeing’ or ‘peeping’ is the practice of looking into a medium to detect significant messages or visions. NB “…the accomplished female bard, Maighread Ni Lachainn, would ‘see’ her poems running along the green turfs that formed the intersection of wall and roof in her blackhouse” p.72 Soil & Soul by Alastair McIntosh.

lyrics

Guidance — Observation

One for sorrow, two for joy
three for a girl, four for a boy
five for silver, six for gold
seven for a story that’s never been told

They are scrying in holy wells, in mirrors, tea leaves
coffee grounds, wine sediments, in dust and flour

I am in the park. I have questions
a pair of blue Jays
are shrieking in the treetop

They are casting stones and shells, they are counting thunder
dropping wax in water, striking copper bowls

I am in the park. The following day
the Jays are separate now
and they’re silent, one in each tree

They are dowsing with rods, pendulums, observing the patterns in ash
and soot and smoke, they are reading the peat in the black house roof

I walk outside the city. Some time later
a small fledgling blue Jay fallen from its nest
is lying dead in the path

credits

from Faultline, released May 22, 2020
Voice recorded by Jer Reid.
Sound produced and mixed by Lisa Fannen

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Lisa Fannen Scotland, UK

lisafannen.uk

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