Owls vs. Cancer

Terry Tempest Williams, an American author, conservationist, and activist, draws inspiration for her writing from her homeland of Utah and her Mormon culture.  Her memoir, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, draws parallels between the flooding of the Great Salt Lake and the devastation at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, to her journey through the ravaging effects of breast cancer on her family and her relationship with the environment.    

Refuge begins with a background about the burrowing owls at the Bird Refuge.  While visiting the Bird Refuge with a friend, Terry is confronted with the realization that developers have completely leveled the mounds the burrowing owls lived in.  Three men tell her that the owls were messy and basically a nuisance.  Terry reacted in the following way: “Restraint is the steel partition between a rational mind and a violent one.  I knew rage.  It was fire in my stomach with no place to go” (Williams 12).  Obviously distraught over the loss of the owls, Terry responds by giving the three men the middle finger, a gesture her mother was appalled by, as women did not deliver obscene gestures to men.  Later in the book, she describes that “in Mormon culture, authority is respected, obedience is revered, and independent thinking is not” (Williams 285).  In following the traditions of her culture, she should have stayed silent about the owls, rather than “making a scene.”  It is understandable that the destruction of the owls’ habitat would enrage Terry, as the Bird Refuge had always remained a constant for her, something she could depend on.

It is interesting that Terry becomes enraged over the owls, but does not react in the same way when told the news of the tumor her mother discovered.  When her mother explains that she thinks she found another tumor, Terry does not get angry, she appears to be more in a state of disbelief.  Perhaps she believes that because her mother survived cancer once, that she can overcome it again and fight it.  She certainly becomes visibly upset, “the tears I had wanted to remain hidden splashed down on the notes I was taking, blurring the ink,” but she does not become angry over her mother’s diagnosis (Williams 27).  Terry’s mother comes to terms with the fact that she will not live much longer, and by spending time with and caring for her mother over the course of the book, Terry comes to terms with her mother’s death.

I am wondering why Terry exhibits such anger over the destruction of the owls, but does not react in the same way when told that her mother has cancer once again.  What are your thoughts on this?

Works Cited

Williams, Terry Tempest. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.

To Be or Not to Bee

We all know that Emily Dickinson, the famous poet, never married, but it is obvious from her poetry that she understood love quite well.  Often labeled a “reclose,” Dickinson seems to be okay with the freedom that comes along with being by herself, as apparent in her poem, “Could I but ride indefinite.”

Falling under the nature category of Dickinson’s poetry, this poem creates an interesting juxtaposition between a meadow-bee that is free to fly wherever it pleases and Dickinson who wishes she had that same freedom.  She is in awe that the meadow-bee has the ability to fly all over without a care.

The meadow-bee is able to visit where he likes, flirting all day with buttercups (a type of flower), and dwelling a little everywhere.  The speaker of the poem (I’m assuming it is Dickinson), wishes she could marry anyone.  For a woman of her time period, it would have been frowned upon for a woman to display agency enabling her to basically select her own husband.  Perhaps not marrying at all was her way of pushing against society’s standards. 

The speaker also states that she wishes she could run away with no one to chase her.  It is not clear in the poem who she is trying to get away from.  Who do you think Dickinson is addressing when she says, “till I should jump peninsulas to get away from you"?

Dickinson’s overall tone in the poem is certainly not one of loneliness.  It seems like she is quite adamant that she does not want the company of a man to chase her around.  She wants to be free like the meadow-bee to roam as she pleases.

Works Cited

Dickinson, Emily. “Could I but ride indefinite.” Bartleby.com. 2015. Web. 11 Feb. 2017.

Birth of Dawn Woman - Luci Tapahonso's "A Breeze Swept Through"

Dawn, dusk, sunsets, morning, August, and November – all of these words are ways to mark the passing of time.  Luci Tapahonso’s emphasis on the passage of time was our focus when studying her poem, “A Breeze Swept Through.”  After a lengthy discussion, the class decided the poem was about the birth of her two daughters, Lori Tazbah and Misty Dawn. 

Later Tuesday afternoon, I was still pondering some of the lines in Tapahonso’s poem and thought it must have a deeper meaning than just the birth of her children.  After some digging, I realized that this was the case – in the video, “Native Voices” on the Annenberg Learner website, Tapahonso’s poem is identified as borrowed from the Navajo creation story.  As stated in the video, “The poet’s birthing of her daughters is retold as part of a sacred narrative, a story about the birth of the world.  Like a chant wave, the poem repeats “she is born” four times, connecting the birth to the Navajo value of harmony and completion.”

Unfamiliar with the Navajo creation story, I read it through on the Navajo Legends website and the story definitely sheds some light on Tapahonso’s poem!      The creation story outlines four worlds that depict the emergence of the Navajo people into their homeland.  Man and woman are created in the first world, “Above the sea there was a black cloud, a white cloud, a blue cloud, and a yellow cloud.  The female spirit of life lived in the black cloud, while the male spirit of dawn lived in the white.  When the blue and yellow clouds came together, the First Woman, while the black and white came together to form the First Man” (“Navajo Creation Story”).  In the third world, the First Woman gave birth to twins, neither male nor female; four days later a second set of twins, a male and female; and after twenty days, five sets of twins had been born.  These children of the First Woman and First Man go on to bring many people into being, according to the creation story.

In the video interview I watched, Tapahonso reflects on her poem: “It’s a poem that acknowledges first woman.  It begins by acknowledging a holy person and the idea of dawn, but it also acknowledges the beginning of my daughters’ lives, which is a very sacred thing.  (“American Passages”).

It is clear now that I’ve read the Navajo creation story, that Tapahonso is connecting herself with the First Woman, referenced as “dawn woman.”  Staying connected with her ancestors is an important part of Tapahonso’s life.

I am curious yet about the colors of the male and female spirits presented in the creation story.  It states the male spirit of dawn lived in the white, while the female spirit of life lived in a black cloud.  Is there a significance to the reference of dawn connected to a man?  Tapahonso’s poem uses the term “dawn woman” not “dawn man.”  What are your thoughts on this?
 

Works Cited

“American Passages: A Literary Survey – Native Voices.” Annenberg Learner, 2016, https://www.learner.org/series/amerpass/unit01/usingvideo.html.  Accessed 2 Feb. 2016.

 “Navajo Creation Story.” Navajo Legends, 2017, http://www.navajolegends.org/navajo-creation-story/.  Accessed 2 Feb. 2017.

 Tapahonso, Luci. “A Breeze Swept Through.” Sisters of the Earth, edited by Lorraine Anderson, Vintage Books, 2003, 48-49.