Synkroniciti is delighted to welcome Houstonian poet and writer Kathi Crawford with two fascinating poems. “The Study of Moving Through Time” is a contemplation on time travel, eternity and mortality. Our desire for time travel is akin to our desire for eternal life, or perhaps the real longing is for some peaceful place outside of time. Science tells us these things are possible, faith asks us to believe, but our vision remains, generally, opaque.
“You want to believe if you never die/ and your soul gets to travel from one form to another/ you will create something better,/ but if you were transported from planet to planet/ and lived on a star or inside the moon/ or boiled in the sun, your immortal soul/ would pay. You would continue to witness/ the ways we destroy each other.”
Kathi’s openness to the ambiguity of human existence does not diminish the joy of life or the value of its struggles. She rather makes us wonder why we don’t value life more, why we aren’t more present or kinder in the face of our mutability. Rather than always wishing to be somewhere else, why don’t we take some time to be here. Kathi’s imagery combines reality and imagination, curiosity and wistfulness.
“I Sat Next to Octavia E. Butler on a Tour Bus Headed to Crater Plato” is a surreal prose poem. Kathi reveals a dream or fantasy of taking a tour bus on the moon with the famous science fiction author. They talk about writing and stories.
“Now, in her afterlife, she was writing on the moon. I wanted to know why she chose the moon. There were so many more interesting planets in the universe for her to go to. The moon can be so boring. Dark, cold, and barren. Unless you stay on the Lunar Highlands side. But the heat might boil you there.”
In dreams the dead are not dead, they converse with us and show us mysteries (or nonsense). Whether they are reflections of ourselves, of the collective unconscious, or of that place outside of time, we often awake with a changed sense of reality. Stories connect us across time and writers contribute new variations, patterns and characters to the collective unconscious. Octavia Butler, the first black woman to write successful science fiction novels, an author who took world building to a new level, certainly changed the maps and brought us new visions. This is a lovely tribute.
Kathi has a delightful sense of wonder that ranges from the wistful to the impetuous and a transparency that makes her imagery fly effortlessly even when she’s discussing heavy issues. Read her insightful poetry in Synkroniciti’s “Dreams” issue, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
After a successful career in organizational and leadership development, Kathi Crawford founded People Possibilities, LLC in 2008. Writing poetry has been an ongoing journey of learning and exploration for her. She has always been curious about human nature and the reasons behind our choices. Through her work, she hopes to spark dialogue about the challenges we face both collectively and individually.
Her writing has been featured in a variety of literary journals, both online and in print. Her chapbook, consider the light, is available from Finishing Line Press. You can connect with her on Instagram or Linked In @kathicrawford and subscribe to her blog at https://kathicrawford.com/.