LEARNING TO DROWN
by
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HOG HEAVEN Hog-killing day at uncle’s ranch. We sit the fence watching squeal and run from what they don’t know. Which gun will make first kill? Hogs wobble—drop into death as into instant dream. Men groan their joy in the great weight of bodies hoisted and hung on hooks to finish bleeding. Sharpen their knives—battle to be first to slice up hog—drag out guts. The bodies hang open—gaping like giant jaws—like mouths with no tongue or teeth. No way to drink or eat the slops from the trough. No way to voice opinion on the way the day has gone. Hogs drained from life to meat. Rubber boots—our feet dance their blood.
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About the Book
Learning to Drown shares the author’s experiences as a six-year old in eastern Oregon in 1948. The author’s father, trained as an engineer, decided to become a farmer. Her mother, with a college degree in Latin, kept everything together—food, duties, fun, music, and love—in an old farmhouse that had no running water, no electricity, no telephone, and no indoor toilet.
About the Author
Early life on small farms taught the author to value solving problems. From her college-educated parents she learned to value education.Discovering and helping then became central to her teaching experiences. She has taught writing, reading, creative writing, drama, and orchestra to junior high school, high school, and community college students. Privately, she has taught violin and viola to students from the ages of 1 1/2 to 85. She develops yearly string concerts with varying themes such as “ In Dreams,” “Mostly Movies,” and “Of Wings and Strings.” Teaching community college students who were studying the “trades,” Helen came to understand that, like them, she is a maker—a “poem maker.”