Sasquatch Visits: 3:15 Experiment Poetry

Last night Sasquatch woke me up.
He was just leaving, rushing off.
If you’ve never seen him
he doesn’t look much like his pictures.
Sure he’s tall & apelike & hairy
but he doesn’t look like a brown version
of the yeti on the Bobsled ride at Disneyland.

No he’s not furry—more hairy.

Once he realized he woke me
he hurried off, glancing back once
like Lot’s wife.

But he didn’t turn to salt–
like she did which would have
left me with more proof to share
than this image
burned into my retinas.

In case you’re wondering, he didn’t
talk but I did know
that he was big & threatening & hungry–
but not hungry like
he was going to eat us.

Yes that’s a good thing to know–
that even though I was terrified–
and for good reason–
he’s not cannibalistic–
he wanted to kill us but not eat us

Instead he was hungry for something else
but what I couldn’t say for sure.
Peace perhaps? Solitude?
Be left alone? Not chased?
Those seem natural
but not exactly
the message I got.

No he was hungry for more space
for more imagination
for less limitation
There was something that he needed
more out there
like he was mad we were
taking more than our share
leaving him hungry

I guess he’s an endangered species
hungry for green in our world

Tues. August 21, 2012 3:15am Ventura CA
words c. gwendolyn alley aka art predator
images c. Susan Grelock

Photographer Susan Grelock is interested in the places where humans and animals meet. This summer her fieldwork focused on minding the gap between ecology and depth psychology, especially through education for children. You can connect with her via Facebook http://www.facebook.com/susan.grelock.56?sk=wall or Pinterest http://pinterest.com/susanmichellegr/animals-humans/

Susan says the foggy trail is from Marin Headlands, where she slept alone to cross paths with wild cats. The taxidermy is from WildCare, where she is learning to be a nature guide for kids.ttp://www.wildcarebayarea.org/site/PageServer )

Susan and I are both in our second year of our PhD in Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute in the Community/Liberation/Ecopsychology program which includes a field work element. While Susan’s fieldwork explores the relationship between animals and humans, mine examines altered states of knowing and writing, particularly hypnopompic/hypnogogic states used in the 3:15 experiment where participants wake to write at 3:15am every night during the month of August; I am co-editing a 20th anniversary collection of 3:15 experiment poems from participants in every time zone, to be released on 3/15 2013 from en theos press, by reviewing poems submitted to the website. I am also looking for convergences and divergences in the 3:15 writings from our collective consciousness.

During the next few months, I will be posting my 3:15 experiment poems here as well as on the 3:15 Experiment website. Keeping with the guidelines of the experiment, these poems will be published as they were written. I am also working on another 3:15 experiment collection, a follow-up to middle of the night poems.

Knowing Susan’s research interests include Sasquatch, I asked her for images with which to illustrate this poem.  I wonder how our consciousness connected so that the one she was searching for visited and spoke with me…as I work on my field work paper (which is due in two weeks), I might find some insights…

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