OPEN SEPT. 15 - NOV. 15: SOWELL EMERGING WRITERS PRIZE FOR FULL FICTION MANUSCRIPT. LEARN MORE.
Old, mossy well with water visible at bottom

One Poem by Francis Raven

 

 

Double Divination

 

My people ask counsel at their stock and their staff declares unto them.
                                                                         — Hosea 4:12

1.
                      Arrive at fresh pools
While recovering yourself, from self outward
            Even travelers carry large amounts of fresh water
Gaze
Buoyant objects
                        Float an egg white
Predicting future husbands
Fertility eases along the surface
                                    Using tools to contact…
Liquid symbols of the future:
Into a blue ceramic bowl.
Ask your question.
                        May cloud:
            Glare into, indirectly.
When symbols cease forming, stop chattering,
Interpretation begins; post hoc reproductions take hold of your hands.

2.
Pendulum over map
            Electromagnetic aquifer                   If moisture is a window to the soul…
                 If you’re looking to walk on water
                 You must first find it.
                 Can you walk on the humidity within?
  
                        forked twig                 prospectors                 mining dowsers
plunging utensils                   transplanted practice                             underground selves

Y-shaped divining rod’s dipping direction
Underground roiling; each branch held sweaty
Position suddenly jerking downward
Testifying to a witch; is he controlling the branch?
Drill a well (on your own property to be safe).
Sometimes water will be present at that spot; other times, it is not.
Sometimes you will see your soul; other times you will not.
(It might also be wise to seek a hydrologist.)

 

 

Francis Raven’s books include Architectonic Conjectures (Silenced Press, 2010), Provisions (Interbirth, 2009), 5-Haifun: Of Being Divisible (Blue Lion Books, 2008), Shifting the Question More Complicated (Otoliths, 2007), Taste: Gastronomic Poems (Blazevox 2005), and the novel Inverted Curvatures (Spuyten Duyvil, 2005). Francis lives in Washington D.C.; you can check out more of his work at his website: www.ravensaesthetica.com.

Header photo by freestocks-photos, courtesy Pixabay.