After the Sheep

Sending you to another interview today, this one full of the magic and wisdom of Sherry O'Keefe, poet, editor, viola player, and sometime sheep shearer.

I was struck by this:

After the sheep are sheared, they run about the barnyard a little bit shocked and startled. Not so much because of what happened to them, but because of what happened to the others! Until they run around and smell each other, they no longer recognize any other sheep. 

I can't help but make a human connection, of a spiritual or emotional or psychological sort. When we are naked and vulnerable together, shorn of our protective covering, yes, we don't know who we are! But this is us! The real us, the old us, and the new us. And we are finally focused on each other! By necessity! To know who we are collectively, to figure ourselves out individually.

And running around smelling each other somehow seems perfect for the Hump of the Week in the blog.

You can read some of Sherry O'Keefe's poems here, and her blog, here. I think her Making Good Use of August chapbook must be sold out at Finishing Line Press, as the link doesn't work, so contact her through her blog, if you want to get hold of that.

The fabulous art here, at the interview, and in Sherry O'Keefe's solo poetry feature is by Escape Into Life artist Michal Geidrojc.