Laynie Browne is the author of nine collections of poetry and one novel. Her most recent publications include:
Roseate, Points of Gold (Dusie, 2011), The Desires of Letters, The Scented Fox, and Daily Sonnets. Her honors include: the National Poetry Series Award, the Contemporary Poetry Series Award, and two Gertrude Stein Awards for Innovative American Poetry. Currently she edits for Trickhouse and is co-editing the anthology with Caroline Bergvall, Teresa Carmody and Vanessa Place, I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women (Les Figues, forthcoming, 2011). She has taught creative writing at The University of Washington- Bothell, at Mills College in Oakland, at Naropa University, and at the University of Arizona, where she teaches creative writing and coordinates an interdisciplinary writers-in-the-schools program.
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32
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away
you envelop me
After death animus hovered around the body
An owl climbed outside one’s form
Quintessence— in a great treasure-house, or cage, a columbarium
May only move through human frames
In the fourth heaven— a lake of birds— continually praise
Saints affirm ardor in the shape of doves
Causal birds in the Acherusian lake were consulted
As advisors upon creation of humanity
41
You have supported me and you set me before you
Sparrow and swallow rise upon the walls
Sing whereupon they are ushered
Into hidden passage— or nest
Adorned with crowns
They prepare a sanctuary of the future
42
Deep calls to deep
to the commotion of your canals
all your billows and your waves
have gone over me
No act was undertaken
without advice of
augury, prophesying
by flight of birds
Open a window
Chaldeans, Greeks, Romans
that the soul may
augur = avi-gur, οἰωνὸς, οἰωνισταί
sing, whisper
"for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter."
wing away
59
You have been my stronghold
and a refuge in the day of my distress
Divination by means of weasels, fowls, and stars,
Who is an enchanter?
He, for instance, who says:
My bread fell out of my mouth
My staff out of my hand
Divine by behavior of the fish
Snake and cloud omens
An owl alighted on the tree against
Which you now lean
Who speaks the language of flight?
Do not advise, even in whisper
birds carry a voice onward
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note: Numbers for poems and text at the beginning of each poem in italics are taken from psalms (various translations). These particular psalms, often identified as Nachman’s healing psalms” were chosen by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810, Ukraine) and are traditionally read during mourning. This practice exemplifies Nachmans’ use of sacred texts as meditative tools, and highlights his religious philosophy which revolves around intimacy and direct conversation with divine.