Hi, my name is Heidi and this blog was created for an African Film and Literature class that I am taking at CSUN in Fall 2010. I named my last blog after a poem, so I thought I'd do the same for this one. To me this poem is about immersing oneself in the unfamiliar in order to "see" it, which seems a good way to approach this class (among other things).
"How to See Deer"
by Philip Booth
Forget roadside crossings.
Go nowhere with guns.
Go elsewhere your own way,
lonely and wanting. Or
stay and be early:
next to deep woods
inhabit old orchards.
All clearings promise.
Sunrise is good,
and fog before sun.
Expect nothing always;
find your luck slowly.
Wait out the windfall.
Take your good time
to learn to read ferns;
make like a turtle:
downhill toward slow water.
Instructed by heron,
drink the pure silence.
Be compassed by wind.
If you quiver like aspen
trust your quick nature:
let your ear teach you
which way to listen.
You've come to assume
protective color; now
colors reform to
new shapes in your eye.
You've learned by now
to wait without waiting;
as if it were dusk
look into the light falling:
in deep relief
things even out. Be
careless of nothing. See
what you see.
