BLACKBIRDS
Thanks for “liking” blackbirds on fb. Here’s the story.
Chinese Blackbird is the title of my memoir in verse. Originally the title was A Woman’s Cycle, but friends liked Chinese Blackbird better. Here is a Chinese Blackbird by fugar and one by Neil.
When I started reading about blackbirds, crows, ravens etc. I discovered blackbirds are not family to crows and ravens. Nevertheless, I think ravens and crows are fascinating, smart birds.
When Lori and I created our signature workshop, A Gathering of Storytellers, we chose this Dreamstime photo of “birds” because it seemed to us they were chatting, gossiping, telling stories. I also use the logo for my name cards.
Much to my surprise when a friend saw my card she looked at me in disbelief and said something like how could you? Not her exact words, but truthfully I didn’t know what she was talking about.
Of course!
Embarrassed that I hadn’t made the connection, I apologized to Lori and was ready to change our logo but she said we should keep it. She, like many of you, are drawn to the raven/the crow-the Chinese Blackbird. And although crows are often negatively symbolized, they are also very smart and represent “guidance” and “love” in African and Asian culture.
Then again, one of my favorite, yet eerie, lines by Joy Harjo “What a hard year. We’re all dying, even that crow talking loud and/kicking up snow.” (“WHO INVENTED DEATH AND CROWS AND IS THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO TO CALM THE NOISY CLATTER OF DESTRUCTION?” The Woman Who Fell From the Sky) What to make of it? We are all dying, yes, but our stories, hopefully, won’t die with us.
I welcome your comments.
Copyright May 28, 2012
Sherry Quan Lee
