"There came news of a word.
Crow saw it killing men. He ate well.
He saw it bulldozing
Whole cities to rubble. Again he ate well.
He saw its excreta poisoning seas.
He became watchful.
He saw its breath burning whole lands
To dusty char.
He flew clear and peered."

from A Disaster

Ted Hughes

book Crow

Yes more BC vacation photos. One of the first creatures that

welcomed us on our initial somewhat damp walk on the

seawall were the crows. They were everywhere in the surf, on

the beach, in the park, in the sky. After watching them mob

the Bald Eagles, quarrel with the gulls  and raid the trash cans.

I decided this will be my "totem" animal, go figure I have always

felt a certain affinity for crows whether they were acting as the

noisy heralds of spring or moving through our neighbourhood

in great silent flocks in the fall, they have exerted a strong pull on

my imagination.  Possibly if I lived by a winter roost I would

feel differentely but I don't so I won't.

A great book about Crows is Crow Planet by Lynda Lynn Haupt.

Her book about Darwin, Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent is

also very good.

And  like a good poem or painting the more closely

you look at a crow the more beauty you find.

And as with all good totems he can be scary looking,

magisterial,

and he also points the way.

"But Crow . . Crow
Crow nailed them together,
Nailing Heaven and earth together -

So man cried, but with God's voice.
And God bled, but with man's blood.

Then heaven and earth creaked at the joint
Which became gangrenous and stank -
A horror beyond redemption.

The agony did not diminish.

Man could not be man nor God God.

The agony

Grew.

Crow

Grinned

Crying: 'This is my Creation,'

Flying the black flag of himself. "

from Crow Blacker than ever

Ted Hughes

book Crow