Karen Taylor

This piece is based on a folk rhyme about counting crows to predict the future. The idea is that you count crows that you see in unexpected places, or that suddenly appear in front of you.

Wikipedia tells me it’s a British rhyme from the 1700s originally about magpies. I learned the rhyme from one of my grandmothers who was superstitious about all sorts of things. I’ve read several versions, some with slightly happier verses, and some that go up to ten or twelve.

The version I learned is:

One for sorrow

Two for mirth

Three for a funeral

Four for a birth

Five for silver

Six for gold

Seven a secret, that’s never been told

The form of the piece is based on Mexican Tree of Life sculptures which I love because they’re beautiful, and because in amongst the flowers they often portray complicated ideas of heritage, history, life and death, and of creation and destruction. Like in the celebration of Dia de la Muerte, the idea of the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead, or the natural and the spiritual being lifted is something often represented. I love the idea that crows might move back and forth through that veil to bring us clues about the future.