Raven Girl – A Desert Ballad

mixed media on canvas – 24″ X 30″
© 2018 Sandra Ware

Raven Girl went to the desert
To see what she could see
Took a trip just to look around
But found herself a key
     Kachinas looking back
     Kachinas looking back

Raven girl went to the desert
To ask a gift for free
But the Spirits came with a bargain
And destruction was their fee
     Kachinas looking back
     Kachinas looking back

Raven Girl went to the desert
To test the way was true
She saw the rocks through Raven’s eyes
As ‘neath the moon she flew
     Kachinas looking back
     Kachinas looking back

Raven Girl went to the desert
And the Spirits she did see
They broke her dreams and stole her heart
But Raven Girl is free
     Kachinas looking back
     Kachinas looking back

 © 2007 Sandra Ware

This painting was decades in the making, involving as it did foreshadowing, shapeshifting, and the falling together of things along the Path.

It was the poem that inspired the painting, the writing of which came some years before. At that time, I belonged to a poetry club and was given the assignment to write a ballad.

Raven Girl, as you might guess, is autobiographical – an early part of my continuing story with Sedona and the ravens.

The winged figure in the painting was lifted from an etching that I produced in college, many, many years before I ever visited Arizona.

The Kachinas looking back refrain was inspired by the Nietzsche quote: If you look long into the abyss (the sacred void), the abyss looks back into you!