“The Birth” by Linda Ravenswood
The ones on four legs
ran away.
Her screams
were a shock
even to her.
Though the mate
had mated
previously,
he too kept in the
outback.
When the little one
fell out
from between her legs,
she had no reason
to smile
and carry on with
all of that laughing
like she did,
but she did it
anyway.
She picked him up;
brought
her mouth,
over his nose,
sucked out
the clog,
jettisoned red streams
from his nostrils,
through
the flute
of her tongue,
onto the earth.
She had no idea why she did it
but she did it anyway
She rolled over in the leaves
nestled her backside in the grass
and cupped him against her.
Stars were up
____________________
Share your response to this work, in any form, here
Linda Ravenswood’s Artist Statement:
Mainly a performative artist (BFA, CalArts, 2000) with shows focusing on sound art and installation / and
temporary physical endurance pieces in nature, Linda’s work presents as visual and sonic sculptures that make
verbal, gestural, and collaborative requests of viewers and participants.
Whether using skills as singer, writer, director, or performer in a landscape, (industrial elevator or open field) the
hope in presenting work is to reach the viewer in a stirring, visceral, evocative way.
With an aim towards inquiry, tantalization, and uncovering, she speaks, stands, beckons, and reminds viewers to
hold memory, history, place and lineage as holy, yet available markers. In these ways, Linda has evolved an arts
practice holding a strong and defining spatial, and theatrical course. Recent work (2014 2016) has appeared, or been
commissioned at Cornell University, The Broad Theatre, AWP Pen USA, The Google Corporation, The Los
Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, The Angel’s Gate Cultural Centre, The Artery (Los Angeles), The Bootleg Theatre
(Los Angeles), Gallery 16 (San Francisco), The Lancaster Museum, The Hollywood Fringe Festival and
Craftswoman House. She has been published in 30 literary journals, her music has appeared in 3 documentary films
(PBS), she has 4 books in print (Sybaritic Press, Mouthfeel Press, Gallery 16 Press, LACMA Press forthcoming),
and she is a 2016 Vermont Studio Centre fellow in Poetry. Twice nominated for The Pushcart Prize for Poetry,
Linda is a lecturer, dramaturg and workshop presenter, most recently teaching at Occidental College. Linda
Ravenswood is NDN, First Nation, (Pokanoket Nation) a Mayflower descendent on her mother’s side, and an
Indigenous Mestiza from Baja California Sur on her father’s side. She was raised by Holocaust survivors from
WWII.
