Author: callimulligan
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Ushesh. The Recollections of a Megafauna Bear. Part 3: “Eshemu”
My mother’s name was Eshemu. She was a very rare ice bear, her fur adapted to the blue glaciers in our northern country. From a distance, my mother could give the illusion that she was the shadow of a cloud moving over the ice; when standing close to her, her blue gray fur softened the…
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Ushesh. The Recollections of a Megafauna Bear. Part 2: “The Goddess of the Moon”
There is no one, human or animal, who can pretend to divine the true nature of myth and reality during their lifetime upon Earth. The old stories resonate so strongly in our souls and captivate our hearts so completely that we want to believe they are literally true—that the gods and magical creatures really do,…
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Ushesh. The Recollections of a Megafauna Bear. Part 1: “The Aathsha”
My name is Ushesh. In my earthly life I inhabited the far northwest corner of North America, at a time when the glaciers were receding and the first of you humans were entering our world. My snout was shorter and my face flatter and wider than the bears you are now familiar with, and I…
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Pomegranates
Pomegranate seedsHades’ trickeryPersephone’s fallEight months aboveWith Mom DemeterFour months below with HadesTricked and trippedBy unconscious forcesWe struggle to rise above
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The Archeology of Memory
Several times near the end of her long life my grandmother mentioned a time when she was very young and her new immigrant father took her out in a little boat on a New York City beach. Gramma didn’t give a lot of detail, but this was obviously a precious moment that encapsulated a feeling…
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Perfect Trust
I was pondering the sad, awful state of America one day when I suddenly remembered an amazing encounter with a pair of Bald Eagles in Alaska. These birds mate for life, and ritually renew their devotion by grabbing each other’s talons in mid-air and tumbling head over head down before releasing and soaring back upward.…
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Green Nostalgia, My Grandmother’s Kitchen
Like the lone albatrossCircling the unconscious seaI float over the memoriesSurveying the childhoodI once inhabitedFrom every perspectiveI’ve studied my grandmother’s kitchenBut it is the view from aboveThe seabird’s scrutinyThat my mind’s eye always favorsThe narrow back staircasePeeling wallpaper, threadbare carpetAge and decayYet fragrant with ancient spicesMysterious witch hazelThe old radiators, clanking and hissingWith the same…
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Melting
Snow capped mountainsMeltingInto historyLike an escaping dreamEluding memory’s graspSilent, wordless grief Painting by Kawase Hasui
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Healing Rhyme
Listening to the newsIt can be hard to smileOur country in a downward spiralBut still we can rhyme in styleWords made pretty, and agileLittle drops of sunshineIn pocket vials*** *** *** ***Count the deer in the photo!! Sadly, the beautiful hillside will soon be mowed down by goats to reduce wildfire risk.
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Spring Wildflowers
How can a flowerPossess such powerTo cheer us up?Unfolding symmetryPhotons of colorSnatched from the cosmosDeceptive simplicityA spiritual mysteryOf wonder and love
Haumanu Speaks/PoetiCalli 