Sheri-D Wilson's Goddess Gone Fishing for a Map of the Universe transports you into the “now” of metaphysical possibility, to fly between solitude and wild abandon, from Buddha blink to cosmic flare. At once organic, spiritual and technical, Goddess Gone Fishing for a Map of the Universe uses QR codes to send readers outside the book to new vantage points. Wilson says, “QR codes bridge the gap between pencil and tech where poetry is high paced, high energy and the perspective is technology.” In performance Sheri-D moves outside the book; QR is outside the book. The experience of poetry is lifted off the written page and transported to a totally new platform. Pervading the book is Wilson’s belief in an upsurge of feminine divine energy that will quell the madness of our times.

2. It was as though
The lifeline on her palm
Had fallen between the cracks
Of the impossible and the arbitrary

3. Also by Sheri-D Wilson:
Books:
Autopsy of a Turvy World (2008)
Re:Zoom (2005)
Between Lovers (2002)
The Sweet Taste of Lightning (1998)
Girl’s Guide to Giving Head (1996)
Swerve (1993)
Bulls Whip & Lambs Wool (1989)
CDs:
Re:Cord (2006)
the sweet taste of lightning (2001)
Edited Works:
The Spoken Word Workbook: inspiration from poets who teach (2011)

4. GODDESS
Gone Fishing for a Map of the Universe
The Poems
Sheri-D Wilson
Calgary AB

5. Copyright © 2012 by Sheri-D Wilson
All rights reserved, including moral rights. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including
photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system without permission
in writing from the author or publisher, or ACCESS copyright, except by a reviewer or
academic who may quote brief passages in a review or critical study.
Book design: Neil Petrunia/Epix Design
Cover Image and design: Peter Moller/Egg Press
Author photo: Mike Roberts
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Wilson, Sheri-D.
Goddess gone fishing for a map of the universe : the
poems / Sheri-D Wilson.
Issued also in an electronic format.
ISBN 978-1-897181-60-7
I. Title.
PS8595.I5865G64 2012 C811’.54 C2012-900256-9
Frontenac House Media gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for
the Arts for our publishing program. We would also like to thank the Government of
Alberta Multimedia Development Fund for their support of our publishing program.
Printed and bound in Canada
Published by Frontenac House Media Ltd.
Building B1, Suite 136, 2451 Dieppe Ave SW,
Calgary, Alberta, T3P 1G9, Canada
Tel: 403-245-2491 Fax: 403-245-2380
editor@frontenachouse.com www.frontenachouse.com

6. Contents
Hyperlink: The Cartographer 11
Ode to my Microscopic Life 17
Part I – Preamble: 17
Part II – Ode to my Microscopic Life: 18
Part III – Self Portrait: 20
Dancing Off the Side of an Urn 24
Monterey Bay 27
Passageway I 27
Passageway II 29
Passageway III 30
Primordial Women Riff 31
Euphonic Sketch I – Saturn 31
Euphonic Sketch II – Jupiter 31
Euphonic Sketch III – Mercury 32
Euphonic Sketch IV – Mars 32
Euphonic Sketch V – Venus 32
Euphonic Sketch VI – Moon 33
Euphonic Sketch VII – Earth 33
She was a Water Sign 35
Goddess of New York City 37
Gypsy Madonna from Florence
On the Opening Night of Lorca 41
Ubiquitous Google Goddess 45
Three Dick Pix 48
Part I – Phallus Photos 48
Part II – Mixing Cocktails with Ego-testicles 49
Part III – Tele-dildonics 50
Geek Love & Skin Diving 51
Fish Tale 53
Aphrodite’s Aphrodisiac 55
Why Calliope Loves Poetry 58
Plotting a Plot 60
Ffraid’s Cadarnhad – Cyn She Siarad 63
Thrown Out 65
Speaking Fans 67
The Barcelona Bakery of no Return 71

7. Heart 76
Telling Hearts – Apart: 76
Hearts are Body Parts: 77
Follow your Heart: 77
Wild @ Heart: 77
Hearts for Sale or Rent: 78
Heart Failure: 78
Heart of Lost Letters: 78
Ghosting Heart: 79
Heart of a Poet: 80
Disguising your Heart Throb: 80
How to Test the Heart: 80
Heart of Sticky Notes – The Real Test: 81
Love High Tech Hearts: 81
Robot Heart: 81
Hearts in Space: 82
Reflections at Heart: 82
Incredibly Realistic Gypsy 84
In Search of a Metaphysical Rock Star 87
Sister Mary 91
Baubo Exposed 93
Accident Prone Goddess 96
When the Goddess Isn’t Looking 100
Extra! Extra! Read All About It!
Shakti! Shakti! News Flash! 102
The Hair Piece 105
Dance of the Sparrow 108
Why Goddess? 109

8. HYPERLINK: THE CARTOGRAPHER
If the Universe is a woman
and the woman is a cartographer
and the cartographer creates a map
and the map is of herself
then she, the Universe, could
recreate herself, by imagining
herself as she might imagine herself
to be, therefore designing or divining
a new way to be seen.
And as she reinvents herself, to mark
her transformation from Miss
Universe to Miss
Multi-verse, she reboots
to set her new default name as
Mama Mappa Mundi.
And when she laughs, stars explode
from her stellar mind, ten billion light
years of knowing atoms, water-based life
what happens after death, and if there is a God
flash in her every breath.
She thinks: I’m expanding exponentially
maybe I should go on a diet
more exercise. Then again I like being
quasar-esque, painters plead to paint me
and what could be better
than that?
A macrocosm in a tear, yes.
11

9. She charts a hemisphere
where dreams reside, so to interpret
herself from the other side, flip
side. Plots a new discourse, tongue & groove
fresh attitude, new angle on ancient territories,
hidden stories—she’s on the move, weaving
new cloth out of old voids.
Opus to the impossible.
1.2.3: Ahau
5.6.7: Cumbu
Abracadabra. She thinks it
and it appears, duende—
she finds a map buried somewhere in a lost
shop, in some forgotten alley
off an unknown street; and this cloaked
shop is a virtual galaxy brimming
with curiosities, like collectable skeleton keys
to nowhere; jails that no longer have bars;
and Miss Multi-verse returns from afar
to earth—tablet in hand, no words to describe
the lost and forgotten land. No mental map
could include, exclude, conclude or preclude
where she thinks she may have been
to discover it.
A microcosm in a breath.
How does her map depict—
Island
Place of the rising sun?
Island
The sun is hidden and nothing can be seen?
Island
Beyond the flight of birds?
12

10. It is a map of every possibility
every pinpoint, every landmark
named and unnamed, and it is blank—
terra nullius.
And when our cartographer
unfolds this map
she’ll never have to refold it
for it will unfold and fold itself
memorizing its own creases,
an automatic map
which knows its own limitations
embodies its own contradictions.
The way the elements of the landscape
fold into one another.
It indicates patterns of birds
and animals and clouds and spheres
and sand in the rocks between tides
counting extremophiles, the flow of reptiles
and groves of trees of life, orchards and canopies
forests, ocean winds and seas
and all movements of water.
It indicates every essence of every being
whoever passed through
its waypoints, and all stories
all sounds—time simultaneous
and all history, all fanciful frippery
sub-atomic to cosmic mystery
practical and impractical
D-mercantilization
D-nationalisation
all at the same time
at the same distance
as if circumnavigating light.
13

11. With infra-red telescopic eyes Miss Multi-verse
peers deep into her own space. Some would
call her a navel-gazer, an omphaloskeptic
But Miss M-verse knows she’s just a multi-core
worry wart so she continues to muse: filling
omnipotent shoes, the terraforming
of Mars with a multi-infinity intensity
the parallel multi-verse, divinity
subterranean habitation, the Copernicus revelation
unplugged into twelve-dimensional hyper-space
being bugged, Genesis as Utopia, exoplanets
and what will LISA’s baby pictures
tell her about the instant
of her own creation?
She retweets a self-proclaimed
mathematician’s joke: The Universe
is a hologram projected by
a microscopic disco ball.
She thinks: Yeah, and I’m a mapper rapper!
And she tweets: Off to do some vacuuming.
Then,
she signals for her Hippogriff, Oceanus
and she disappears.
Dust.
14

12. To read her directions—one must first learn
to read the mind of the maker
of the map, Einstein. What data
did she include, omit? One thing’s for sure,
her map won’t colonize or control,
for the spirit of one small Universe
among so many Universes
must be free to explore
the whole.
It’s all in the spectro-scopic eye.
If something’s forgotten
in the asteroseismology of stars
does it continue to exist? And
how does the creator depict:
The flight of birds.
The extinction list.
If the cartographer sees a depiction
of wind, will there be wind
so trees might grow, if she sees
Sun, will there be Sun
Moon, Moon
Light
Light?
Musica Humana. A microcosm in a scale.
<<<<<<<<<A fish scale>>>>>>>>>
If you put a fish
into a Zen garden pool,
will it become Zen?
15

13. <<<<<<<<< Biospherium>>>>>>>>>
Trust the Multi-verse
a virgin dimension, matrix
with no border-lines
atlas of endless possibility
etheric—her-metic
with all routes in, through, around
and about
breath.
<<<<<<<<<Gills>>>>>>>>>
They say poetry allows us to see
what is too large for our vision:
If I look through a magnifying glass
she thinks, there is nothing too small
for my mind.
Orbis musicae theatri et cathedras
circuirent circuitu
donec requiem
cum in orationibus divinis feminine.
And so on—
till the cows come home.
16

14. WHY GODDESS?
Fishing for a dream—
a bumper sticker stuck on the fender
of a carbonless car reads: Isis Isis Ra Ra Ra
the Earth chants, the trees talk
and the sea sings
every poet brings new
meaning to duende,
the statue of the Vierge Noire was not created
by human hands, she’s found in trees, groves
lakes, streams and natural springs—
if you try to take the Goddess away
or remove her, the place will no longer exist
the tail of a comet
and fire, the fire within
expression of fire-lines
leading to the cave
over a lifetime and again
go fish!
the feminine divine teaches
all humankind how to wish
for the first time, explains
what it means to come true
a small dog named Violet
with an ultra big heart
who loves beyond reason
109

15. with abalone eyes
sees into the blues
reds and greens and white and black and brown
and yellow of gold—and colours
unseen—keyhole to meditation
and worship—where supernatural powers
of the statue are kept—indestructible
she always returns to the temple
the gypsy lament to the moon
and her retrograde vision
and the swing sister sweet
resonant chariot, fanciful feet
in whimsical power boots
magic lingering and quirky
and kooky space suits
finding restful places to tie a fly
mother and witch and virgin and whore
all opening doors and holding them open
long enough for everyone to come in
to drum for the womb, past a dualities tomb
dissolving like sugar and spell-binding the room
into one, at one with nature
look under a stone
Goddess, is
a basket of sweet wild berries
fresh picked among spiders
left at the door with a bell
ringing once
and languages, all
ways of seeing and telling
with the intention to bless
and therefore be blessed,
110

16. midwife of all Marys
transformation past the hunger of time
with eglantine and ivy
omnipresent, into invisible texts
evaporated by knowing
Goddess
of dreams, or astronomy, or comedy
or idyllic poetry, Goddess of sacred
or choral music and dance or romance, epic poetry
or history—one Goddess by all names
for we are all one, poetry and flute and lyre
one body—all rare—Vitruvian Woman
flower petal to the metal up the fault line
of no regrets, ancient trees, dancing naked in the rain
as a blue bird, shakes tail feathers free
as goldfish memory evokes of all those
who came before and sang
till the feathers at our feet
fly
Goddess is Goddess
and that is that,
and that is why
the magic number is one
and none, aleatoric
a Goddess
creates great beauty, as minds
open books, and hearts
let the tongue be free in sanctuary
Goddess is praise
of the Goddess
and the map is never finished
111

17. Sheri-D Wilson
Poet
www.sheridwilson.com
Artistic Director
Calgary Spoken Word Festival
www.calgaryspokenwordfestival.com
Director
Spoken Word Program
The Banff Centre
www.spokenwordworkbook.com
Twitter @SheriD Wilson
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