Journey Through the Hinterland

By Raven J. Demers

Poems of discovery, loss, and the long sojourn home. Do you believe magic can be discovered under every leaf? Have you experienced trauma or tragedy, yet learned to laugh in spite of it? Do you see beauty in the simplest expressions of nature? Share a walk with a woman as she journeys through the hinterland of a life filled with the nuances of self discovery, stories told to her in the haze of dreams, the trials of parenthood, the acute pain of loss, and the joys of unexpected treasures.  This collection of poetry straddles the space between what is known to be real and what can only be seen from the corner of the eye or at the edge of sleep.  Won't you take a walk?

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Satyr's Garden
• Release date: Jun 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781393954682

Raven J. Demers

Raven J. Demers writes speculative fiction and is the author of the Daisy After Life trilogy and co-author of the Amakai series. Xe earned a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Washington and is a member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association. Raven lives in a forest near Seattle with xyr family.satyrsgarden.com

Book preview

Willow and Birch

Seattle

Journey Through the Hinterland

All rights reserved © 2013 Raven Jennifer Demers

mountain originally published in The Licton Springs Review 2003, © 2003, 2013

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the permission in writing from the publisher or author.

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ISBN-13: 978-1489503039

ISBN-10: 148950303X

Printed in the United States of America by Satyr’s Garden.

www.satyrsgarden.com

Table of Contents

Preface

Look for the Monster with the Peacock Feather and Wire-Rimmed Glasses at Table Nine

It's Tradition

mountain

Seeking One Older Brother, Lost to Time

the flight

Even Scratching Doesn't Help

We Don't Talk About Mary

May I Borrow a Cup of Muse?

Where the Secrets Lie

Moth kiss on my cheek

secret pleasure

My Brothers

The Corner

Cucumber Whore

Not Round-Up Ready

Dye-Maker's Lament

Why is a Raven like a Writing Desk?

Smoke Against the Wall, Dreaming

Empty of Sound

Nick Drake’s Guitar

Must Be Real

Excavation

The Moves

Gospell (sic)

at the corner of E Shelby & Eastlake

The Dark Passenger

A Ghost in My Machine

Gender Queer-ish

My Mother's Camera

Dynamics of static form

The Priest Could Not Give

Colorful Houses

The Spot

recycling apathy

There Will Be No Earthquake

Belly-Soul

An Elusive Shade

The Lessons

transcendence

Deliquescent

They Are, Are You

from the mist, she emerges

Standing at the Edge of Understanding

Alexandria

Here I Go, Bare-Breasted Before the Fall

On the Train, She Told Me

Courage

You Cannot Ask Me

The Orphan of a Forgotten Age

Journey Through the Hinterland

Malleable

Olives

Postscript

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to my daughter, Anastasia, for helping me select the poems worth reading and ditching those that made her yawn, to my partners, Craig, John, and Gira and to my best friend, Vanessa, for your support and patience as I obsessed over the right words in a manic haze. A big thank you to my friends and fellow poets, Nicholas Vayle and Regina Green, for putting up with my revisions and comment fishing over the