When the Wind and Sea Dream...

"When the wind and sea dream the storms stop."

Magnetic poetry found at the Snow City Cafe in Anchorage, Alaska. August 2010. 

A Gallop Down Memory Lane....On a Seahorse

How are memories retrieved?  The part of the brain called the "hippocampus" is believed to be integral in this process.  This region of the cerebrum has a broad S-shaped sweep; its elegant curvature reminded classical anatomists of a seahorse, so it was given the Greek name for that creature.  One type of memory that the hippocampus mediates is "declarative memory," which we experience when we consciously reach back in our minds for previous experiences.  The hippocampus also appears to contribute to the linking of objects and events around us with past experiences. 

---Jerome Groopman, The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness (2004)

Botched

When I was a month pregnant, the great
clots of blood appeared in the pale
green swaying water of the toilet.
Dark red like black in the salty
translucent brine, like forms of life
appearing, jelly-fish with the clear-cut
shapes of fungi.

That was the only appearance made by that
child, the dark, scalloped shapes
falling slowly.  A month later
our son was conceived, and I never went back
to mourn the one who came as far as the
sill with its information:  that we could
botch something, you and I.  All wrapped in purple it floated away, like a messenger
put to death for bearing bad news.

---Sharon Olds,  "Miscarriage" reprinted in On Doctoring: Stories, Poems, Essays (Eds. Richard Reynolds and John Stone)

I really love Olds' choice of words--especially "information" and "messenger" in this quote. But the most memorable part of this poem is the information offered at the sill :  " ...that we could botch something, you and I."