The Literary Geese

At SE Portland’s Westmoreland Park, the water birds cavort in a turmoil of flying, diving, dabbling, swimming, skittering, scudding, splashing-- not to mention various promiscuous shenanigans that would make Hugh Hefner blush! Yet--did you ever notice, at that park, a gaggle of geese that keeps mainly to itself, that comports itself in a more serious and, even, literary manner?

These are the Literary Geese of Westmoreland Park. They stand apart in a riparian clearing between the reeds and bushes. They stand apart from the querulous ducks, the opportunistic sea gulls, and the other foraging waterfowl.

Did you know that geese have a literary tradition as well as a literary canon?

It is in the oral tradition, of course. They flock together to repeat and memorize the great texts of Goosedom. This is what that gaggle of geese is doing at Westmoreland Park--the ones that stand off by themselves. They recite, in goose, the great works of their culture.

The venerable texts of antiquity are declaimed (needless to say), such as The Tower of Dabble. Yet it is perhaps in the novel form that Goose Literature reaches its highest achievement. One need only cite The Scarlet Feather, Fluttering Heights, The Old Goose and the Sea, Quiet Grows the Down, The Great Gooseby, and Wings of the Goose to indicate the literary riches here.

And then there is that mammoth tome--certainly a challenge to the oral tradition in itself-- War and Geese.

So next time you visit Westmoreland Park, you might enjoy observing, from a respectful distance, the Literary Geese who gather there.