Patricia Schmieg

GHOST HERD

Don't you hear
The thunder horses?

All the animals know
They come before dawn.

Deeteza, princess
by Nitez out of Hana,

Knows I'm afraid of horses,
Spins me to the low pasture,

Calls Appaloosa, Morgan,
Quarter Horse, Arabian,

Thoroughbred twins dead
at birth, new-standing foals

Press their heads around me,
Over me, in front of me.

I am dissolved
I am the space between

I am what spurs
the molecules.

Horses never close
Their eyes when they die.

But all
Deeteza's eyes close.

On the hill, the tallest
maple burns at first sun.

At that blaze---
You know how birds

Shift on the wind?
They fan out.

Patricia Schmieg
 

DREAM TEXT

Meditation w/Spring Farm Care Animals November 2, 2005

I ask Deeteza, a discarnate Arabian mare and master teacher at Spring Farm, how to learn chemistry. I find myself inside the low pasture, between the main hall and the arena. Deeteza is standing in front of me. Every horse who ever lived at Spring Farm circles around me, at a distance, then closer. They press in, horses' heads around me, over my shoulder, in front of me.

I see the skin, then the patterns of their muscles twining, the bones, the spaces between the bones, and the molecules. I lose track of "me." O ring. Butane ring. The circle.

History: In 1993, a fire destroyed the barn at Spring Farm Cares in Clinton, NY. People still hear their beloved ghost herd galloping the fields at night.  To see pictures of the "Ghost Herd," scroll down at
http://www.springfarmcares.org/horses.htm
 

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