Maria Isakova Bennett is a positive force of nature, an extraordinarily talented artist, writer, publisher of hand made books, nurturer of ideas and interests. In this recording she offers an abundance of winter in language that itself embodies the cold and is fine tuned to the music of weather.
Migrationsof geese
We watch them leave, dragging the sky
like chevrons of tide around a pole,
an updraft of invisible stars
streaming behind them,
ancient light infused with visions
of their ancestors,
now bone, or fragments of bone,
trapped in ice:
tiny flutes packed with frozen air.
of whales
Put your ear to the shore,
your cheek against this rock;
they are below you and above you.
Hear them winding and unwinding
their strange harmonies
of waves and tides, laments
woven by the sea dislocating
arcs of bone.
of caribou
Startled, they circle downwind,
tails and heads held high.
Towards the lakes, paths narrow,
force them to follow,
mother and calf,
its roaming eyes, unsteady hooves.
With arrows and spears,
we thrust and pierce hide.
They buck and stumble,
eyes roll skyward,
the great heads swing and roar,
stub-teeth yellow with lichen.
When they fall, the hills shudder.