Ravens and Rituals

I love crows and related birds. They're noisy creatures, but they're very smart, and they seem to be everywhere, city or country. In that way, they remind me of sparrows, another of my favorite birds. True, they're not particularly gorgeous, and they're anything but rare, but it's comforting to know that you can find them almost anywhere, even the parking lot at McDonald's.

I bet you didn't know that blue jays are members of the crow family, but they are. They're such beautiful birds, but their raucous cries betray their corvine origins. Corvine means "crow-like," if you haven't guessed already. I have crows, ravens and blue jays in abundance at my house in Oswego. They may be of humble origin, but it's nice to hear them in the mornings and know that at least some of nature's creatures have survived another day.

Crows are extremely intelligent birds. Here is a link to an article about the intelligence of crows, and recent studies have shown that crows can recognize human faces.

The photo above is of three ravens having a meeting in the snow. They look to me as if they're having a good gossip, or maybe they're complaining about the weather. There are ravens in my neighborhood, too. One morning a few weeks ago, a raven was perched on the roof of my garage, shrieking at some smaller birds sitting on the backyard fence. Then the raven swooped down into the yard, picked up one of Peterkin's dog cookies and left. Peterkin is my dog, a 6.3 pound Yorkie, who's pretty raucous himself. Ever since, I've been keeping watch to make sure that the raven doesn't come back looking to pick up Peterkin!

In 2004, I wrote the poem below, which seems to go pretty well with the picture, even though the poem refers to crows instead of ravens. Birds of a feather, and all that.

RITUAL

Three black crows greeted me today;
they flew all night from Babylon to get here.
I watch for them as soon as winter comes;
God only knows why they come back again.
Next year I'll watch for them once more,
like Dido waiting for her lover.

Crow-eyes follow me to sleep at night,
like black and shiny beetles on a twig.
Their evil faces leer at me, eyes full of spite;
I wish they'd stop. They make my dreams
too hard and sharp, like pins under my pillow.