Over the three-day weekend, in between jumping puddles if the predictions for rain are correct, I will post a short video and a couple pictures each day from our visit to the 2009 Oregon State Fair. It will be wrapping up after Labor Day, which is when we normally have attended.....the last day when everything is rather worn out. But this year we went on opening day and found the animals, exhibits, entertainment, and fairway employees all fresh and sparkling with good cheer and even an extra dose of spunk.
Because we headed straight to the animal area that is where we'll begin this abbreviated tour of the fair that is held annually in Salem, Oregon. I've loved the event since the first year I moved to this state and, yes, it does still hold the same excitement for me as it did in 1976, except now there are numerous memories added to the mix and that makes for a rich concoction of emotions.
I hope you enjoy the first video (3:19 in length).
What do animals dream?
-by Yahia Lababidi
Do they dream of past lives and unlived dreams
unspeakably human or unimaginably bestial?
Do they struggle to catch in their slumber
what is too slippery for the fingers of day?
Are there subtle nocturnal intimations
to illuminate their undreaming hours?
Are they haunted by specters of regret
do they visit their dead in drowsy gratitude?
Or are they revisited by their crimes
transcribed in tantalizing hieroglyphs?
Do they retrace the outline of their wounds
or dream of transformation, instead?
Do they tug at obstinate knots
inassimilable longings and thwarted strivings?
Are there agitations, upheavals or mutinies
against their perceived selves or fate?
Are they free of strengths and weaknesses peculiar
to horse, deer, bird, goat, snake, lamb or lion?
Are they ever neither animal nor human
but creature and Being?
Do they have holy moments of understanding
deep in the seat of their entity?
Do they experience their existence more fully
relieved of the burden of wakefulness?
Do they suspect, with poets, that all we see or seem
is but a dream within a dream?
Or is it merely a small dying
a little taste of nothingness that gathers in their mouths?
.
7 comments:
Heartbreaking video, beautiful poem. How can you NOT be a vegetarian? I love the New York Times stories of animals with a plan, escaping the slaughterhouses, finding their way to the Bronx, being rescued and taken to a farm in upstate New York.
I was at the Oregon State fair five years ago. I fell in love with a Lama that day and for about two days after I was convinced I needed a Lama of my own. I came to my senses.
It was a fun fair. Wish I was there.
( We are watching the OSU beaver game as I write you).
I can't even tell what I dream now, much less try to figure out what an animal may dream. ;-)
I loved the first part of the video when the sheep followed the leader. Led astray by a woman, huh?
I haven't been to a fair in 30 years. I always enjoyed them when I could go.
You are clearly a person of emotional creativity/compassion
Heartening to see my poem included in your sensitive page
If you care for more (spoken word) you can find some here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/jadkfja
Cheers,
Yahia
@secret, fragile skies- When I'm with the fair animals I always wish I could free them all to a wonderland of bounty and protection. I don't know about the New York Times stories you mentioned but they sound right up my alley and I will find out about them.
Are you a vegetarian? I quit eating mammals over 30 years ago but have continued eating fish and poultry, although for the life of me I can't see why after spending time in the Poultry Building with these beauties.
**Please note comment from the poet of this special poem below**
@Belette- O, I have been convinced I must have a llama of my own too, most recently while visiting Bend where there are many in pastures. I'm sorry that we've had to come to our senses, darnit!
Who won the game? Sunday paper will tell.....
@Darlene- Thank you for your cunning observations about the video! I hope you will enjoy the next two days of fair videos to recall good times at the ones you attended. :)
@Yahia- O, what a wonderful surprise to have this gracious message from you! Please note that I used the link you left to change your name to a hot link directing readers to your channel. I have just returned from listening/viewing some of the most beautiful poetry in video form! I will definitely return there time and again...
All my favourite things! Particularly love the sheep :-) They are much misunderstood creatures. They have a peaceful intelligence and strong family bond which they distress acout easily. Most breeds are very fragile animals, sensitive to the extreme and they have a reputation of just surrendering to death at the drop of a hat!
The poem is a lovely thing too :-) I'd like to think animals dream all of these things...
Hello Lydia,
Hope you've been well. Below a link to a reading of my poem on animals that you liked.
Cheers, Yahia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDhKYQBvNsc
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