RAVEN MEDICINE

Raven comes by today

and I witness
without herbal enhancement

a new move
one I hadn't noticed before

which is strange
because it is perhaps the most basic:

stillness

_______________


a brilliant demonstration
not thirty feet in front of me

how to be still
maintaining one's position
amidst the various wind currents

and as I sit in mild reverie
at what has just passed

a different bird flies
right over my porch:

hawk! maybe eagle! no!

a red-tailed hawk
new arrival to the hood

comes back over me
and I watch it glide
away across the arroyo

____________

raven patrol follows
two springing up in its direction

but no fight ensues

and as one wanders off
the other comes near

now above me
between myself and the sun
hovering again in stillness

then suddenly--
she folds!

falls fifteen feet
as I gasp

and just as suddenly
rights herself--
as she always has

and is she cawing
in laughter?

knowing

I've seen this diving trick before
it never ceases to amaze me

today it is particularly welcome medicine

it is an essential practice
this art of falling

from stillness
into laughter

____________


I know it sounds silly
but I really didn't want to leave
my brothers here

there will be a new occupant here soon
(maybe here to learn from Hawk?)

the ravens are out here still
playing close to the house

making a dance
of the surprisingly blustery
June afternoon

and just maybe
Raven comes with me
in the moments I remember

to play