Pages

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Ask Baba Yaga: A Significant Life Change

Baba Yaga by ~RaynerAlencar
It is with the Yaga oracle's blessing that I am now able to bring you a semi-regular fairy tale advice column! Just one thing: don't expect glitter and glass slippers (unless they're breakable) because Baba Yaga doesn't beat about the bush in telling you like it is. But that's what we really want to hear anyway, right? The best thing here, is that you can get your advice privately, reading in your book nook (or Nook nook?) at home, rather than in public with lots of attention-drawing cackling and broken yolks splattering your legs...

Without further ado, this week's question and answer (via poet and oracle Taisia Kitaiskaia* of The Hairpin):
(Originally posted at The Hairpin HERE)
My favorite responses to this so far are:

  • The part about the bloodspeck blooming into a castle sounds a lot like my crazy heavy menstrual flow, though. (fondue with cheddar)
  • Am I broken if I think Baba Yaga's answer is beautiful and how I want my life to be? (SarahP)
  • "yr ribcage sleeping sweet." The rest mostly made me giggle but... whoa. (katiemcgillicuddy)
  • I want someplace with my ribcage sleeping sweet! I mean, hopefully it is still in the confines of my body at that point, but who knows with Baba Yaga. (I'm Right on Top of that, Rose)
  • Hush, little ribcage, just kind of nestle, Baba Yaga's gonna buy you a mortar and pestle... (TheLetterL)
  • I just keep reading "knobbly feets" over and over. (meetapossum)

One word: aweberries!

What do you think of Baba Yaga's words?

By the way, if you're curious about whether you can ask Baba Yaga a question of your own, the answer is YES! Taisia is willing to offer them up and see if the Yaga has anything to say.
"If anyone has questions they would like to ask Baba Yaga feel free to email me (notes AT thehairpin DOT com, making sure to write "Att: Taisia re Ask Baba Yaga" in the subject line) or leave them here! (on the original post, linked underneath Baba Yaga's typed letter at The Hairpin)"
Thank you Baba Yaga (& Taisia).


Taisia Kitaiskaia is a poet, writer, and Michener Center for Writers fellow. Born in Russia and raised in America, she's had her poems and translations published in Narrative Magazine, Poetry International, and others.

2 comments:

  1. once again, i LOVE THIS MORE THAN WORDS CAN SAY.

    "i checked again for soft things lost... not here. not in the marital cupboard. not lost in the laundry or shuffled off with the coins i cannot keep around. somewhere there's a jar filled with bones and other breakage and i'm pretty sure my heart is stuffed in there. no pantry of panacea this; that jar's a hell-pot of hopeless. you can't pretty it up, not in this lifetime. even the blood in there is dried, bone practically powder, and the memories sing thinly, if you pour fresh blood on, but who would do that? (i would.) tender fool, wistful-wishful idiot, half-souped worm in a chrysalis of your own work..."

    baba yaga, throw me a bone...

    ReplyDelete
  2. https://eldermountain.wordpress.com/2015/08/23/baba-yaga-the-black-shaman/

    ReplyDelete