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Notes:
 F This poem
mentions bee-eaters – there seems to be quite a variety of them (1, 2,
3,
4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9,
10, you can
find more on your own), steppe buzzards (1, 2, 3 in Italian
but nice photos, 4 go
to #298, includes an audio link, 5), and kingfishers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) .
G The fig
mentioned here, and elsewhere in these poems, is the strangler-fig. It grows in many tropical and sub-tropical
countries around the world. It is
parasitic and often kills its host. Photo of the
tree from Villanova and of the roots
from Andrews. Here is the Australian
version. This site from Palomar gives an international look at
the plant.
H Forbes
was a military leader under Cecil Rhodes.
In 1890, Chief Mutasa (or sometimes Umtasa) granted mineral
rights to Rhodes’s British South Africa Company. Unfortunately, the Portuguese claimed he had given them the
land some two decades earlier. Macequece
(on the coast of present-day Mozambique) was a poorly stocked Portuguese fort
which Forbes took to establish supremacy over the land. The British later
negotiated with the Portuguese, in their displeasure with Rhodes’s tactics,
to return the area.
I The bushbuck
is likely the fawn referred to in the I poem. The bushbuck is a little smaller than our
native deer here in Virginia. It is
shy and often travels alone. It is one of the more difficult antelope to
spot, which makes sense that the poem finds only a track and not the animal.
The boar is probably the warthog. It
leaves marks on trees, similar to dogs marking territory or bears scratching
up trees to show others how big they are.
Oghum
is a kind of Celtic alphabet, also considered by some as magical. Craibia is a native tree (see leaves
here).
K The “curious
cardinals” mentioned near the end of the poem
O An acrostic
is a poem that spells something vertically without distorting what it says
horizontally. Sometimes it is a key word or phrase, other times it might be
the alphabet. Acrostic poems can be quite elaborate, as in Psalm 119 which
gives eight verses to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The acrostic here
seems quite appropriate for reinforcing the theme of the book.
P I have not
been able to locate the places mentioned in P.
R Hornbills
are one of the unifying elements in Original Forest. The come in a
number of varieties (1,
2, 3, 4, 5) For the strangler-fig,
see note above. For horsewood, let me know what you find.
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Journal Response
Prompts:
 F makes a clear connection between flocks of
migrating birds and people; what kinds of connections do you make for
yourself, and what kind of birds do you identify with most?
 G makes comparisons between people and plants. Which plants named in the poem do you
identify with? Are there other plants
that you feel a certain kinship with?
 H presents history as circular, specifically in its
juxtapositioning of 1890 and 1990.
What events can you think of that are a hundred years apart (or more)
that show a similar human impulse but different values at work?
 I asks us to think about the importance of
meaninglessness to identify what is meaningful (e.g. the track must have
meaningless mud to exist); how do we balance meaning and meaninglessness in
our lives?
 J asks if
our identity is constructed of the sum or interaction of our
experiences. Why do you agree or
disagree?
 What are the important elements in K? Why?
 What things besides the leopards in L exist whether
we see them or not?
 In M, what is the nature of evil?
 How are poems and forests alike in the O poem?
 Q asks those of us north of the equator to consider
how things are reversed when one crosses to the southern hemisphere. Consider what things would be
significantly impacted by this kind of reversal.
 U begins, “Under the mountain. . . .” What things do we look for that might be
buried around us and what speculations do we make without confirming details?
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