snow moon
snow
falling heavy from the roof
pigeons
doing dives and swoops
I
am singing a solitary song
wrapped
up in my winter cocoon
sheltered
from the woes of the world
watching
the ravens’ westward flight
in
the early blue light of a January morning
who’s
to know if the residents of houses
I
walk by are awake and having their coffee
or
still dreaming, the glisten of ice behind their eyes
every
surface is glowing from tree branch to
sidewalk
the moon is faded but still white
against
the sky I imagine I am walking alone
across
its craggy landscape
I
breathe in the cold as cold
as
a moon could ever be
watching
pigeons
two
white pigeons with wings edged in black
follow
the flock, their feathers heavy with snow
they
dive, but seem in full plummet
as
they rattle and shake plexiglass and metal
I
watch the pigeons most winter afternoons
it’s
one of the joys of my life, my stillness,
their
circles in the sun, over and over again
they
go and they come back, they always come back
a
few times a week I walk five kilometers and am grateful
I
have the strength to walk and believe I do
at
the start of the forty or so minute journey
three
ravens fly west as I travel south
it’s
always three and we meet one another
ravens
in the air, me on the ground
moving
forward
Turning
Crow
for
Billie
on
a ledge, stark black
against
fresh snow
returning
in the blue hours
once
upon a time
in
November on her deathbed
she
watched as crows gathered
the
pain is no longer life threatening
but
this ageing body aches
more
than it doesn’t
in
her dreams she turns crow
a
slick backed blue black winged
bird,
restlessness transformed by flight
after
a night of rowing the air
she
leaves the murder to its roosting
shakes
the cold from her wings
untucks
elbows, uncurls claws into hands
sweeps
feathers off the bedsheets
turns
night’s liquid black into bones
Earl is managing editor of Bywords.ca, editor of Judith:
Women Making Visual Poetry (Timglaset Editions, Sweden, 2021) and fallen
angel of AngelHousePress, which is currently running a crowd funding campaign
to help pay its writers. You can support the campaign here.
She is the author of over thirty chapbooks and four works with spines, Trouble (Hem Press, UK, 2022), Genesis (Timglaset Editions, Sweden, 2022), Kiki (Chaudiere Books, Canada, 2014; Invisible Publishing, Canada, 2019) and Coming Together Presents Amanda Earl (Coming Together, USA, 2014). Through her press, AngelHousePress she published an erotic novella in 2014 entitled A World of Yes and will publish her poetry collection, Beast Body Epic in autumn, 2023. Her latest chapbook is Fear of Elevators (Turret House, 2023.)
The Vispo Bible is a life’s work begun in 2015 to translate the Bible into visual poetry. To date Earl has made 373 visual poems from 20 books of The old and new testaments.
Earl’s creative missions are exploration, whimsy and connection with kindred misfits.
AmandaEarl.com
https://linktr.ee/amandaearl
https://twitter.com/kikifolle
https://www.facebook.com/AmandaEarlWriter
https://www.instagram.com/earlamanda
https://amandaearl.substack.com
https://zirk.us/@AmandaEarl