…..
Like the whales, I emerged from the sea.
I’m my most dreamy underwater,
….
though not as fluid as those
who tried living on land,
growing four legs from fins,
….
turning around, retracting their landing
gear, returning to the ocean.
…..
That was when the first humans arrived.
Bringing the establishment of ownership,
greed, and waste.
……
I don’t believe the scientists’ answer: food supply
was more plentiful in the ocean. They had to have known.
…..
My animal instinct tells me, whales have enormous
clairvoyant powers, extending their
echolocation far out into the future, as a sounding
device—now here.
If they knew then,
nothing for living would remain,
perhaps we should be asking them now:
where to go next,
and what to ask of the body.
….
This poem is from the chapbook Matches Strike Boxes by Jane Spencer (Finishing Line Press), and is available at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/matches-strike-boxes-by-jane-spencer/\
…..
Growing up in Maine influenced the connection to nature that runs throughout Jane Spencer’s first book of poems, Matches Strike Boxes. Inventively, she explores a multitude of animals, plant and other natural events, that reflect human emotions and personal struggles. She often redirects us from the seriousness commonly found in poetry, to humor instead. We see words appear from boot prints in snow, whales rejecting civilization, an egret as punk, the Zen perspective of a baby dragon, and a child communing with a bull in a pasture. How nature makes the best theatre comes through all her senses. A garden’s shadows can enrich one’s’ world, answering our desires. This writer reveals a truly philosophical approach to a world quickly fading from our consciousness.
After working in the fine arts for decades, Jane switched to poetry. She loves expressing visual images in words, pulling meaning from the natural world, and contemplating our place within it. The pandemic turned her focus on how we think about death, vaccination led her to the afterlife. Jane says poems allow her to connect unrelated experiences. A wonderful process of surprise and discovery for the soul.
The Paddock Review 