The Dead Crow and Dawn Crow Dialogues

Imagine a creature tens of thousands of years old, exiled to a prehistoric Earth for a sin of hubris, the only one of his kind. Unable to get back home. Unable to reproduce. No one of his kind to talk to. Now imagine how he might feel if suddenly, inexplicably, from across the universe, his female counterpart arrives in his life. Imagine the questions he’d have: Where have you been all my life? What’s it like out there in that galaxy I once knew so long ago? Are you here to stay?

The Dead Crow & Dawn Crow Dialogues are a central part of the book-length mythic poem, Dead Crow & the Spirit Engine by poet Sean Arthur Joyce. The work of more than ten years of research into world mythology, the book explores the Trickster trope in one of its many global manifestations—Crow. And not just any Crow, but one with attitude. A Watcher of human affairs with more questions than answers. A soul seeking meaning and transcendence, as we all are, especially during times of chaos and upheaval.

These poems are the result of a lifetime of poetic craft and a decade of drafts and revisions, resulting in a highly polished yet naturalistic dialogue that is equal parts poetry, cosmology, philosophy, and history. Joyce is firmly of the Socratic school of philosophical enquiry: Socrates believed questions held more power for us than answers, since they hone our capacity to think and thus to gain insight beyond mere surface appearances. The Dead Crow & Dawn Crow Dialogues are thus part of this tradition of enquiry as well a worthy entry in the canon of world mythology and poetry.

Audio actors: Dead Crow: Sean Arthur Joyce

Dawn Crow: Nadine Stefan

Recording and mastering: Noel Fudge, Sandhill Studios

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