Divinations II: Twine, Maps, & the Meta-Meta

There’s a twine ball scandal in our midst.

In our second episode of the seven-part Divinations miniseries, poet Sandra Yannone and I dig into her work-in-progress poem, "The Stars on the Snake River," inspired by the Little Oracles lexical fractal "twine," part of the original Little Oracles multimedia digital installation, which is back on view at littleoracles.com/exhibit.

The Stars on the Snake River
by Sandra Yannone | A work-in-progress poem

We twined our way up or down
the mountain at the edge
of the Snake River. We were not
anywhere a map could call
home. We were not anywhere
a map could comprehend.
In 2023 the maps went haywire
and took us down a crude,
curved road. Curved is too kind
a word for the needle
we found ourselves threading;
road is too generous.
We white-knuckled a car
around rock faces
laughing hysterically
to assuage the terror
and amazement. Later we stood outside
inside the black-blue bowl of night
while the river twined around
us. I once trusted this woman
I could not love. She has come from two
worlds. The one she thought
she understood and the one
in front of her ten times over.
She chose neither, electing instead
to stay pinned inside her glass
cage. I tried to reach her,
but the glass was too thick
from where I stood in front
from within my own glass cage
not understanding what glass
stood for: breakable, unbroken,
seamless, flat. I could see only
on the other side of both
our panes: dirtied, foggy, wispy
with seeds. Those antique panes
survived longer than we’d lived.
That can sum up 1995 and six.
Tonight we stepped inside
the cabin with no glass shields
to protect us and slept
under the stars
of our own making.

We talk about the liminality of travel and creative revision, map-making, the poet Elizabeth Bishop (including a reading of her poem, "The Map"), and more. Plus, I share a snippet of my response poem to Sandy's featured reading! You can find the full transcript here. Enjoy this very meta-meta episode. ;)

xx, aa