The Weather is a living e-mail thread between artists Tyler Hoffart and Hanna Waters. Are you lost? Catch up here: Part 1: Introducing the Weather
Tyler Hoffart
Feb 20, 2024, 10:34 AM
to me
The sky changed for me on feb 5 2022, the moment after my brother said Dad was in a wreck and I asked well, where is he? When he paused.
When he said, "he didn't make it."
What do you mean
What do you mean
what are you saying
where is he
where is he
where is he
And it was there, as I popped out of my body, where something took me away. A force that could change sky. I looked down and could see myself breaking. I watched myself heave and look up and search for the beam that had taken him. Only the blue and white and sun. A bird passing. The world turning on without him. Without me. Without stopping.
where is he
where is he
where is he
i am still in that pause on the phone and i'm trying to see the sky
1. I have seen an angel try on snowy owl boots.
I've always had a thing with owls. I grew up hearing an owl couple hoot through the nights at our farm. I accidentally shot one once, when I was 14. I thought it was a chicken hawk. On the farm we're taught chicken hawks are the enemy because they hunt and kill pheasants. Turns out, what I thought was a chicken hawk was a gorgeous owl. (turns out, chicken hawks are not an enemy). I had wounded him. He limped and looked at me with massive eyes. I was devastated. I ran home to tell Dad and he immediately came with to see. He said I had to shoot it. Put it out of its misery. I started crying, but did what he asked. From then on, I only ever heard one owl hooting at night at the farm.
Fast forward 30ish years later (Feb. 5, 2022) and Dad is hit and killed by a drunk driver. Two weeks after, I was on the farm in Dallas, SD, helping my brother Ben keep the farm going despite losing its soul. I was driving a wagon of corn home along an old dirt road on a grey day, when something flew above me. It was out of nowhere. And trust me, you see things coming a mile away on the prairie. But this swooped above me out of nowhere. I pulled over right away and jumped out of the pickup and started walking back along the dirt road. I had my phone camera going (come find me and have me show you the video). A few yards down I spotted something in the ditch. A snowy white owl, shaking its head, ruffled feathers, disoriented, looking up at the sky. "Dad," I said. I didn't mean to say it. I'm not a woo woo kinda guy. But I had goosebumps nonetheless, and the biggest lump in my throat I've ever felt. The owl looked up at me, jumped over the barbed wire fence, and glanced back up at the sky. He didn't wait long and he flew away. I went home and read that snowy owls are almost never seen that far south.
The very next day, someone sent me an old photo of dad. He was down in some parents' basement during a house party. A twenty-year-old golden prince, doing a backflip off a bed. He's in mid-flip and there, just behind him, is something beautiful on the wall. A portrait of a snowy white owl.
You can find at least four owls in Sam The Owl.
Tyler Hoffart
Tue, Feb 20, 10:35 AM
to me
absolutely yes
also: i'm realizing yer probs gunna get a LOT of dad. he was one of my muses before, but NOW? Seems like anytime i sit down to write he comes out. I'll take it
-t
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