Totem Poles

Totem Up

Sometimes I think writing a poem is like constructing a totem pole, at least when it's the vertical type divided into stanzas. I suppose you could say that about anything composed as a series of interconnected images, and totem poles seem to be a powerful organizing concept for visual artists -- connecting, as they do, two realms (the earth to the sky, the material to the spiritual). These digital totem poles, for example, were influenced by both the manmade and the natural world, and have a certain numinous quality.

Real totem poles have always fascinated me. As a boy, I used to have a miniature one on the table by my bed. I think I bought it at a souvenir shop when my family visited the Pacific Northwest. It had three colorful faces, a protruding nose (or beak?) and a set of wings, and somehow it made me feel safe at night. (Whatever happened to it? Why do childhood "totems" just seem to vanish as we get older? I certainly didn't throw it away.)
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