by Deedy Young, published in Psych Perspectives 2017
Rising out of lowland swamps
by the Mississippi’s endless flow,
New Orleans reclines in an elemental embrace.
Rhythms of marsh, wind, earth, water
pulse their way into her music,
Professor Longhair, Dr. John, Neville Brothers, Tipitina’s;
her food, gumbo, crab cakes, catfish courtbouillion, red beans and rice;
her easy street slang, Hey Boo! Ha ya do? Her intimacy with nature kindles affinity
with wildness, with what’s dark and sometimes dangerous,
“the living fountain” from which flows everything creative; *
she holds fast to instincts as wounder and healer
lying like Hermes’ entwined snakes,
perilously close to one another.
*Jung, C.G., CW VIII, par. 339