Sunday Poem: The Quiet Animal by Julia Cameron
Contribute your thoughts on the poem to the community by commenting below. Explore the Sunday Poem archives here.
The Quiet Animal
Oh quiet animal, sleeping,
What dreams lie within your cells?
What ages brought you here
Through coal and ice?
Eye twitch, lip curl–
Blood dreams again.
Blood is always dreaming.
Scheming to move us forward and take us back,
Dreaming the dark places,
Caves and the backs of stars.
Your ivory bones are the tusks of time
Who eats with all our mouths.
That crescent moon? It’s just a bone
Thrown beyond our reach.
The stars at night were someone’s baby teeth.
The blood remembers
What the mind forgets.
The soul is a quiet animal.
Given less to thought than memory.
More to dreams than plan,
The soul owes more to half-remembered God
Than waking life as man.
2 Responses to “Sunday Poem: The Quiet Animal by Julia Cameron”
As with most good poetry. I can find several meanings but I am unable to pin down the author’s source of meaning or intent.
I love the use of blood as a remembering agent and her pitting this against man’s tendency to be flighty. Yet blood seems to represent our ability to die as well and therefore our carnal nature.
The scope is awesome in the 3rd stanza. Thanks for the post.
Comment made on August 22nd, 2010 at 3:53 pmi am so angry….i had such high hopes for the artists way …and i was beginning to feel frustrated…but I kept on… and now week 4 TOTALLY let me down… Im not supposed to read, but then compose a prayer that I am supposed to read EVERYDAY… or am I just really stupid?, as I always thought I was… But , please, just let me know what woulda’coulda’ shoulda…been done! Thank you.
Comment made on November 6th, 2010 at 7:22 pmLeave a Comment