In honor of the announcement of Cassie Premo Steele’s novel, BEAVER GIRL, as the selection for the ONE BOOK 2024 community reading project, we asked Jasper Project board of directors member and local poetry guru, Al Black, to read Beaver Girl and craft a poem in response to the message of the book. Al did not disappoint! Please read Al’s poem, and the signature poem for this project, The Remembering, below, then pick up your own copy of Beaver Girl, and write a poem, paint a picture, or create a piece of music in your response to the book and enter it in the Jasper Project’s THE ART OF ONE BOOK 2024 Arts Contest.
The Remembering
Leave your shoes here on the stump.
Go forward on bare feet,
step through into the Remembering.
The ground will know you.
The mycelium will announce your approach.
Next to the beaver pond remove your gown.
Sit naked on the bank. Tonight is the Leaving of the Kits.
The recitation of old stories
of Livia, Chap and their families
Tales of a time when humans and beavers
spoke the same language
and learned to live together, again.
Tonight, young beavers must leave their parents
make space and time for the next litter.
They may invite you to swim
to the far side of the pond with them.
There they will leave the water
and begin their journey to new streams.
Not all of your sisters or all of the kits will remember,
but if they listen,
they will feel memories of the Healing Time
that came after the Great Dying Away.
And maybe - if you are blessed,
you will remember and believe the old stories of a beaver girl
and that ancient laws of preservation are based in truth.
The door of enchantment is only open a short time
so do not question me, remove your shoes and enter the Remembering.
Al Black, 04/21/2024
