What Does the Raven Eat Today?

 

by Brett Rutherford

    After a ballad by Kreuznach

Over the parched field one raven flew.
Keen was his eye, but nothing he found.
One comrade comes from the flock to join him.
“My coal-black friend, a word I pray.
What man shall give us our food this day?”

Quoth he: “Beyond the wood in Elfindale,
a lordly feast awaits us all.
Come follow me, to the gallow-tree
where the smell  of blood I keen,
the blood of a hero, once brave and kind.”

“Ah!” cried his friend. “I will alert the host.
Who was the wretched man, and how his fall?” —
“Ask the knight’s falcon, who knew him well,
or ask the grieving charger on which he rode,
or better yet, ask of the wife at home alone

what name shall the tombstone call him.
The hawk speaks now, for he has flown
beyond the hunt and its dainty reward.
The horse now serves the murderer,
who rides and rides to the humble abode

where he will play with his enemy’s child,
and take the woman and lift her up
from weeping widow to his armor’d kiss.
Come, ravens wild! The feast is ours,
another banquet from human-kind!”

 

So I'm A Duck (Ne Súwæk)

 

by Brett Rutherford

     adapted from a Mingo Indian narrative

So, I’m a duck. Get used to it.
Suwaek they call me
when I fly over the houses.
But duck will do. I’m good with that.

You already know
that I talk a lot, quack,
quack, that’s just the way I am.
I can only do things one way.

I talk when flying south;
I talk when coming back:
it’s all the same to you
except the way my bill
is pointing. One quack
is as good as another.

I talk when someone tries
to bring me down with his gun.
I talk to the dog and tell him:
not this time, buster!

Talking got my bill so dull.
No one would mistake
me for a hawk or an eagle.
I cannot rend my dinner,

But akya'tíyú, I am beautiful!

The handsome friend
you’re walking with,
enjoying so much chatter:
it might be me, you know,

talking away in wood-shade,
making you tired from so much
walking. I’ll even make tea
from boneset if your leg hurts,

just to keep our conversation
going, just to keep company
with a fellow talker. It’s almost ten
in the morning, and we have a ways

to go. Just over there,
beyond the fir trees, we might,
if we are lucky, spot some
of the Little People I spoke of.

But wait! A little pond!
Just let me rinse my toes first.
Ah! That’s better. Oh look:
there goes a snipe,
that brown spot, hardly moving!

So nice to see a relative,
though with that beak
as long as a porcupine quill
he’s not much of a talker.

Look over there! Not every day
you see a kingfisher fly down
and do his quack-quatic —
I mean aquatic —

dive-and-catch, then quack —
I mean back — to the treetop
(excuse my stutter). I don’t mean
to repeat myself so much!

I’m more than I’m quacked up
to be, you know. That ocean,
far off and many hills away:
one of us made that, you know.

We stretched it out on a frame,
like a fish, drying. No big deal.
And all those islands
and continents? We made them!

Now I know something
that you do not, since I have flown
all the way over and back,
across the whole ocean —

I’ll bet you didn’t know
that people live there, too!
All upside down and quack-
backwards, but there they are!

You can eat those berries:
the red ones, the blue ones.
Myself, I do not eat them.
You’d better not ask me why.

Let’s walk a little more. From here
on forward the way is smooth
along the lake shore. There!
That’s what I wanted you to see:
a heron! Look at him go,

catching that fish, as big
as my body, with his horned
war-club of a bill, so pleased
with himself he is!

Now aren’t you glad
we took this walk together?

(The original of this narrative, in the Mingo language, contains Mingo words that sound like "quack", so this version attempts to re-create that comic effect.)

Where Do Rutherfords Come From?

Before the 1600s, my Rutherford ancestors vanish across the Scottish border. We came from the "Debatable Lands," a border region where bands of men called "reivers" indiscriminately plundered and killed anyone who had the misfortune to be in their way. Often both England and Scotland ignored the raids, or even encouraged them. It maintained a dangerous no-man's-land between the two countries.


The clan Rutherford of West Teviotdale of the Middle March was among them. Today they would be regarded as serial killers, as they seemed to take great pleasure and pride in their work. The reiver bands ranged from a dozen to as many as 3,000 when incursions were made far beyond the border.


Sir Walter Scott was descended from Rutherfords, and in his first published long poem, "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," (1805) he relates an assassination carried out by "A hot and hardy Rutherford/ whom men called Dickon Draw-the-Sword" (Canto VI, Part VII).


The story of the Reivers and the Debatable Land is outlined here. The ruined towers and fortresses are where my ancestors wreaked havoc.

Border reivers on Wikipedia


This map, which traces the horrific feuds and battles of "The Debatable Lands," shows the original home of the Rutherfords and Robsons, my ancestors. Unfortunately the full map is out of print. But with this most recent bit of research, I now know where we came from back to the 1300s.





The town of Hawick even has an annual festival where the descendants of the fearsome Reivers dress up as borderland marauders. The principal focus of the people of Hawick appears to be RUGBY. The name of the town is pronounced "Hoick." This page traces Hawick back to the 600s (an Angle settlement) and the arrival of the Normans in the 1100s.


About Hawick in Undiscovered Scotland



A tantalizing line from another Reivers page: "In 1598 in an incident, the Scottish Halls and the Rutherfords were allegedly singled out by English officers as two surnames to whom no quarter should be given." King James I, after 1603, set out to eliminate the Debatable Land and drive out all its inhabitants, who were scattered across the border and far and wide. (This is how my Rutherford ancestors wound up in Northumberland.)


Hawick is our ancestral home from the 1300s to 1603. My great grandmother was Annie Robson Rutherford, her Robsons having wound up in Blackblakehope in Northumberland. So the Rutherfords and Robsons were probably intermarrying for hundreds of years.

Another clan site lists Robertus Dominus de Rodyrforde and other even earlier Rutherfords.

Although most of these lines went extinct, there is no doubt that all other Rutherford are offshoots of this Rutherford clan. I do not have the begats and marryings that directly connect the Northumberland Rutherfords of Elsdon, but the history pretty much locks it up. No one was named Rutherford because they thought it was a nice name to be connected to.


This is the Rutherford coat of arms:

 

Now I have another generation back on the marauding, limb-hacking, cattle-thieving clan Rutherford of Teviotdale. Yesterday I posted about Dickon "Draw-the-Sword" Rutherford who is in Sir Walter Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel."


A footnote provides more details about an earlier Reiver, a Rutherford with a plundering band of nine sons:


"The Rutherfords of Hunthill were an ancient race of Border Lairds, whose names occur in history, sometimes as defending the frontier against the English, sometimes as disturbing the peace of their own country. Dickon Draw-the-Sword was son to the ancient warrior, called in tradition the Cock of Hunthill, remarkable for leading into battle nine sons, gallant warriors, all sons of the aged champion.


"Mr. Rutherford, late of New York, in a letter to the editor, soon after these songs were published, quoted, when upwards of eighty years old, a ballad apparently the same with the Raid of the Reidsquare, but which apparently is lost, except the following lines :


"Bauld Rutherford ho was fu' stoat,
With all ha nine sons him about,
He brought the lads of Jedhrught out,
And bauldly fought that day."



Britannicus adds:

*** ***

And to think that I spared my enemies...

I need na' ha' dun that.

Pepper and Salt

by Brett Rutherford

and I was only thinking
about the shakers of salt and pepper
that were standing side by side on a place mat.
I wondered if they had become friends.
— Billy Collins, “You, Reader”

Pepper and salt
are enemies:

chessmen on the place mat,
one black, one white,
forward-left, forward-right
political knights,
or plowing angular,
dissenting bishops
each to his heaven,
his rival to hell —

spill from one, a run
of bad luck;
spill from the other,
a sneezing fit
precipitate
of a heart attack.

Salt is poison
to pepper’s ground:
no gardens grow
in Carthage, sown
with the sea’s bitters;

no papricum in Sodom
where Lot’s wife
stands petrified,
a mineral pillar.

If you are white,
all pepper is black,
a back-of-the-cupboard
kitchen mistress,
safely savored,
country of origin
unasked about,
milled, ground
to ash fineness.

If you are brown,
rainbows of spice
surround you:
cayenne, paprika,
jalapeño, chili,
hot on the tongue,
warm in the belly,
the edge of eros,
lips closing, teeth
bursting peppercorn,
sweat beads
across the forehead,
the supplicating smile,
the liquid eyes’ surrender.

A Chinese chef,
wise in the way of things,
heats Szechuan peppercorns
till aromatic smoke
stings, fries salt
in the pepper’s oil,
grinds all together
as “pepper-flavored salt.”

His yin-yang craft subdues
two rival empires.

But here and now,
on this chrome-formica
dinner table, two
pale glass cylinders
stand separate,
monogrammed,
one “S” — one “P” —
imagine the horror
if P got into the S shaker! —

forever apart,
and no, not even
remotely friends.

Disgrace With A Capitol D

 

A passionate essay written January 9th, with the facts-as-we-know-them about the right-wing lunatic attack on the U.S. Capitol. Pittsburgh writer Jonathan Aryeh Wayne sums up how we got to the catastrophe of January 6th, and profiles a number of the bizarre invaders who wreaked havoc in the Capitol. This is an urgent and angry essay. This free PDF pamphlet was produced the same day the author finished his article. This publication takes The Poet's Press back to its origins in underground newspaper publishing. Please download, read, and share this intense article -- while you still can.

This is the 293rd publication of The Poet's Press. 7 pages.

GO TO DOWNLOAD PAGE

In the Alley

by Brett Rutherford

Somewhere in Union City
on a pot-holed side street
I stumble upon a crime scene.

It is not yet seven. No one
has entered the alleyway
that fronts the auto shop.
No one has seen her, naked,
flattened, it seems, by tires
that crushed her this way
and that. Her toothless mouth
is agape in the permanent “oh”
that must have frozen there
as she knew there’d be no mercy
from the circle of attackers.

The thing her mother told her
never to show to strangers
now greets the pigeons, the clouds,
and the imminent sun-rays.
She is so torn it seems
that dogs, and not a pack of men
had been at her. Her legs
are still apart, her shoes
might be some blocks away.

Running this way at midnight
she would have found no shelter.
The chain-link fence, the ripple
of the closed and corrugated shutters
gave her no place to hide.

They had all the time in the world.
No one would hear her. One by one
they did as they wished with her,
then, lighting one another’s cigars,
they left. The moon watched
and sank, too shamed to speak.

Next week, the men will take
among themselves a collection,
a pay-day self-tax for future pleasure.
Down at the pink-lit adult arcade
they will purchase another
whose toothless mouth will never
refuse them, whose legs
are always open, whose breasts
remind them
of one another’s younger sisters.
There is a place on her back
where you pump the air in.
With luck she might last
an hour in the parking lot,
before she’s done for,

hissing out her last,
late night’s love-doll,
inflatable woman.

 

More Creepy Poems Than You Can Count

 

My huge collection, Whippoorwill Road: The Supernatural Poems, contains all my dark and creepy work up through mid-2019. Like Whitman's "Leaves of Grass," I have expanded this work like a huge ball of string. Vampires, Golems, werewolves, mummies and ghouls abound, as well as many dark things inspired by or about H.P. Lovecraft. This is the ultimate poetic story-book for things to read aloud around the campfire, or to frighten young children into hiding under the covers. The 416-page book is now available as a PDF ebook for just $2.99. And remember, every time a copy of this book is purchased, a demon gets his wings.

Order PDF Ebook

Van Cliburn's Triumphant Rise

One of the greatest recordings of the 20th century. Van Cliburn, back from Russia after winning the Tchaikovsky competition, got a ticker tape parade in New York City. This recording, made in Carnegie Hall with a live audience, shows what all the fuss was about. This tall, imposing young Texan rips into Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto, the Mt. Everest of piano concertos.

 

My First Typewriter

 

When I was in third grade, all I wanted was a typewriter. I was given one for Christmas, but it was a toy. You had to rotate a wheel to each letter and then strike a key. It was a cruel joke.

Sometime around fifth grade, with no prospect of ever seeing a typewriter, a camera, or a bicycle (let alone new shoes or eyeglasses), I saw an ad in the back of a comic book. Shortly thereafter I was going from door to door, taking orders for Christmas cards. I am pretty sure this is how I bought a typewriter.

My Lost First Novel

 When I was in tenth grade, I completed a novel. It was a science-fiction novel, almost 100,000 words. As an avid fan of Famous Monsters Magazine, I knew that its editor, Forrest J. Ackerman, was also a literary agent for sci-fi writers. So I packed it up, calculated the outgoing and return postage and was ready to send my first work into the world.

But I did not have the postage money. I had enough money in my pocket to have a couple of after-school five cent sodas at the drug store soda fountain. That's it.

So I carefully and patiently explained to my mother how to mail the package, and that I wanted postage inside the box so that Mr. Ackerman would not have to pay for returning my ms. if he hated it. She promised to take it to the post office and mail it. I assured her that I was soon to be a famous science-fiction writer.

She told me she had mailed the package. She wouldn't say how much it cost.

Weeks passed. Two months passed. Three months passed. Finally, I mailed a letter to Mr. Ackerman asking if he had received my novel. He replied tersely that no such package had come to him.

I despaired. It was lost forever. I had a dim carbon copy, and the original had gone astray.

I didn't try again. I wrote more short stories. I wrote two plays. And then I moved on to poetry.

More than a year later, I was at the kitchen sink and leaned forward when I dropped a knife. I saw something oblong, wrapped in cardboard.

I reached down. There was the manuscript for my novel, lodged between the sink and the wall behind it.

It had never been mailed, and my mother lied to me.

I said nothing. I just carried it like a dead weight on my soul.

I even repressed the memory of this, as of other inexplicable acts of negation, but then it came back to me, crystal clear.

Designing A Poster for Poets in Protest

 

I do not remember this poetry reading, but I designed the poster for it, and read there with poets from Ireland, Poland, Cuba, Argentina and the U.S. It was organized by Boria Sax and was an Amnesty International event. I did a couple of other designs and layouts for Amnesty, but it is a rather clouded memory (1980s).

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony for Two Pianos

 Knowing that few people would get to hear Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Franz Liszt arranged it for two pianos. This striking performance has two pianos, plus a timpanist to put Beethoven's percussion back in.

Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet

 Shakespeare has inspired many works of music. Among the top ten would have to be Tchaikovsky's symphonic poem, "Romeo and Juliet." To show that Romanticism lives, here is a brand new piano transcription of that work, in all its gloom and stormy passion. I swooned listening to this.

Tchaikovsky Romeo & Juliet Overture Fantasy arr. Sudbin

And to hear the original for orchestra: