Nazca hummingbird
For almost a thousand years, the
Nazca people of Peru constructed
huge geoglyphs, hundreds of lined
figures scattered across the Nazca
Desert, one of the driest places on
Earth. (A source states that it
receives an average of only 20
minutes of rain annually). One of
these figures is of a hummingbird,
shown in the aerial photo here.
I've long been deeply drawn to
hummingbirds, and I use the Nazca
hummingbird as my personal
symbol.
The black and white drawing is
by my son Seth.
Nazca people of Peru constructed
huge geoglyphs, hundreds of lined
figures scattered across the Nazca
Desert, one of the driest places on
Earth. (A source states that it
receives an average of only 20
minutes of rain annually). One of
these figures is of a hummingbird,
shown in the aerial photo here.
I've long been deeply drawn to
hummingbirds, and I use the Nazca
hummingbird as my personal
symbol.
The black and white drawing is
by my son Seth.
Annunciation
by Tim Myers
Once the hummingbird
comes to you
in a dream
(they are, as the Nazca knew,
messengers from
the mountain gods),
once it has hovered before you
blurring wings of beryl, topaz, cobalt,
hungry for nectar dips its long bill
into you,
leaving soft grains of sun-yellow pollen
against the walls of your throat,
Poet, wake up, avoid
at all costs
the sad silence of denying
that seed-ache,
rain-fruit-sex-word,
planted there
at the root of your tongue.
(from That Mass at Which the Tongue Is Celebrant,
Pecan Grove Press, 2008)
by Tim Myers
Once the hummingbird
comes to you
in a dream
(they are, as the Nazca knew,
messengers from
the mountain gods),
once it has hovered before you
blurring wings of beryl, topaz, cobalt,
hungry for nectar dips its long bill
into you,
leaving soft grains of sun-yellow pollen
against the walls of your throat,
Poet, wake up, avoid
at all costs
the sad silence of denying
that seed-ache,
rain-fruit-sex-word,
planted there
at the root of your tongue.
(from That Mass at Which the Tongue Is Celebrant,
Pecan Grove Press, 2008)