Over Our Heads
Page 25
near complete annihilations
of all living populations.
Until her atmosphere was altered
through the flux of evolution
through single celled mutation
and organic procreation
in ecosystem synchronization
and symbiotic combination.
Like a phoenix
the garden of Eden
resurrects
in tune with her seasons
only recently becoming ripe
for varied forms of earthly life
and human habitation.
So simply put
the point of the poem
is that the earth was alive
before she was home.
The universe is hostile
and our dependence on the planet
infantile.
There’s only
twelve thin miles
between us and
bombardment by
galactic debris
harmful radiation
and the icy cold hands
of infinite
------------------------- space -----------------------------
This planet
our mother
encompasses you
our biosphere
our home, her womb.
(if it weren’t for photosynthesis
our brain could not consider this)
This poem…
(this is not a poem
it’s a thought
like matter
only less static)
Could it be
possibly that we
are one and the same thing
as earth as life as earth
and that we have been sleeping?
Like the Buddha
before his becoming
like Christ before
awakening
or like when we believed that the earth was
flat
like when we believed that the earth was flat
like when we believed
(of course, up until
that smarty pants Copernicus
shook it up in the 16th century
the idea of solar centric system
was considered crazy blasphemy)
I mean
perhaps we
have made a grave
underestimation
of the entire situation.
(with dozens of microscopic creatures
who now call home to you
can you say for sure that it was nothing
when Horton heard a who?)
But this poem/non-poem
does not propose that with
Gaia as our gracious host
we are planetary parasites
earth our hearth and domicile.
Instead
it stands
hands gesturing wildly
in street corner sermon
uncertain it will be believed
yet continues it’s oration
The living earth
is a single system
a biodiversified creation
each of us stems
from a single seed
connected despite
species transmutation.
(so rather than just freeloaders
perhaps we’re planetary creations)
James Lovelock told the world of this
through a paper he called the Gaia hypothesis.
Perhaps Blake, cummings, Krishna Murti
Hildegard, Joan of Arc, Rumi,
(among the many poets and mystics
who really seemed to get it)
knew of our relation
our situation
knew the source
of all divine
and their place
as a piece
of the planetary pie.
That is
if this
was a poem
to begin with
which it isn’t
it’s just a thought
nothing
but thought.
A versified voodoo creation
from the core of the central nervous system
of
the witch hunts are over
come home
of
perhaps we’re all just the same thing
of
synaptic communication
of
spiritual communion
of
if the universe is expanding
doesn’t that mean
that we were all one
when it began its beginning?
of
no, it can’t be, it makes me dizzy
of
how long can you hold out?
of
I’m a poet, not a planet
of
this is ridiculous, I’m going home
of
there is more to haven and earth, dear Horatio
of
but T.S. called us Hollow Men
of
not with a bang
of
this is a test
this is simply a test
all thinking taking place
is being simulated for test purposes
of
this is the way
this is the way
this
this
this is the way
of
life is but a dream
of
this is the way the world
begins
the world begins
the world begins
this is the way the world begins
not with a bang
but a
wide open mind
(and the whisper of the words)
meditate
deliberate
consider
Acknowledgements
It is a pleasure to be able to acknowledge and thank the many people who supported me through the process of writing this novel. First and foremost, much gratitude and love to my Wonder Woman, Luciana Ricciutelli, Editor-in-Chief of Inanna Publications, for her patience, wisdom, and “dear-heart” encouragement. Also to Elizabeth Greene, whose generous guidance and support, helped me to see my blind spots. Without their belief in this book, I would be lost.
I am also deeply appreciative the University of Guelph’s Creative Writing MFA program, where I had the opportunity to work on the manuscript. Much love and gratitude to Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, my thesis advisor and mid-wife, who generously offered her knowledge and encouragement, and to Jeanette Lynes, whose kindness and faith in this story, as well as my ability to tell it, were precious in the early stages. I would also like to thank the wonderful staff and instructors I worked with in the program: Catherine Bush, Meaghan Strimas, Lynn Crosbie, Michael Winter, and Russell Smith. Also my brilliant fellow students, especially Matthew Harris, Kathy Friedman, Leesa Dean, Adam Honsinger, Naoko Kumagai, Ayelet Tsabari, and Nick McArthur.
Much love and gratitude also to my long-time mentors, Lillian Allen and George Elliott Clarke for their nurturing, generous support and guidance over the years, and to Austin Clarke for being the first to encourage me to give fiction a whirl. Also key during the early stages were: Marilyn Biderman, Mari Floros, Marianne Micros, and Olga Petrik, who all went above and beyond in their assistance and support.
Thanks to Jessica Thompson for her encouragement and inspiration, to bill bissett, for introducing me to the phrase “gone to spirit,” to Eri
c Verspoor and Professor Robert K. Logan for assistance and support around the science details, to Mona Rizatti and Dominic Dileo for helping me understand the realities of living with mental illness, and to The Taiaiako’n Historic Preservation Society for preserving the legacy of Snake Mound.
Thanks also to my beloved friends for all their faith and support: Seth-Adrian Harris, Clara Blackwood, Adebe DeRango-Adem, Brenda Holden, Maureen Taylor, Missy Marston, John Balabik, Wakefield Brewster, Katherine Bitney, Sheila Stewart, Heather Birrell, Patti Ann Trainor, Jo Citro, my WordSpell Sisters: Alyssa Ginsburg, Vanessa McGowan and Barbara Erochina, Tanya Neumeyer, Joanna Zofia Poblocka, Ingle Madrus, Dahila Riback, Jem Rolls, Charlyn Ellis, Brigitte and Sue Lessard-Deyell, Debi Torbar, as well as my lovely friends and former students, Lana Kouchnir-Kachurovska, Laura Kelsey Ridout, Kanwal Rahim, Jessica Gatoni, Rimsha Ahm, and Ayse Kapakili. Much gratitude also to all the colourful characters of my Canadian Spoken Word family, and to the late Frank Plummer, who always encouraged me to follow my dreams.
Special thanks Kimberly Gail (Roppolo) Wieser for her support and friendship, and to the late Eugene Blackbear Senior. Eugene was one of the forty-four traditional Cheyenne chiefs, and was for a number of years until his death, the oldest living Southern Cheyenne Sun Dance Priest, as well as an Arrow Priest, and a Sweat Lodge Priest. He was a Native American Church Roadman for over fifty years, and played Chief Spotted Elk in Last of the Dogmen. May his legacy live on…
I am also deeply grateful for the encouragement and support of my family: the McDougall clan (east and west) and the Thompson tribe, especially Gail Durham, Chris Thompson, Pat and Dave McDougall, Lisa Graham and Kyle McDougall. And special thanks to Kristi McDougall, for donating her time and talent by providing me with such lovely author head-shots.
Finally, I would like to thank my grandparents, Mary and William McDougall for their unending support, encouragement and love, and for sharing their passion for the written and spoken word.
Notes on quotes:
Henry David Thoreau: Walden (1854)
Virginia Woolf: Night and Day (1919)
Jon Brion: “Over Our Heads,” I Heart Huckabees soundtrack (2004)
Other Woolf quotes appear throughout the book in the form of italicized dialogue by Wanda. All these quotes are from Mrs. Dalloway (1925).
Photo: Kristi McDougall
Andrea Thompson is one of the most well respected poets in the Canadian spoken word scene. A popular performer at venues and festivals across North America, Thompson’s work has been featured on film, radio, and television; and included in magazines, literary journals and anthologies across Canada for nearly two decades. She is the author of a volume of poetry, Eating the Seed (2000), and co-editor of Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out (2010). In 2009, she was awarded the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word’s Poet of Honour: For Outstanding Achievement in the Art of Spoken Word, and in 2005, her spoken word cd One, was nominated for a Canadian Urban Music Award. She is currently teaching Spoken Word through the Ontario College of Art and Design University’s Continuing Studies Department in Toronto.