Monday, July 31, 2017

I Know If I Find You I Will Have to Stay with the Earth




The tweet about Susan Collins in the Bangor Airport, Friday July 28, 2017: 859 replies, 14K retweets, 57K likes.

The Kate Bush birthday post tweet, Sunday July 30, 2017: One reply, one retweet, two likes.







Photoshop of me escaping down Schoodic Head by dear friend davidly (most of his posts are in English, but he lives in Berlin so Deutsch sometimes at top of his blog, like now) on Saturday, the selfie at top yesterday, Valley Cove Creek in the saddle between Acadia Mountain and St Sauveur Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine.

Earthgirl asks I again give her credit, and I do because due. I would have said No to ABC, so NBC wouldn't have asked and NPR wouldn't have used it and I wouldn't have made someone's aggregating post on Lawyers Guns and Money Mike's blog aggregation at Crooks and Liars, and I wouldn't have 221 more twitter followers today than I did Friday morning. I find it fascinating - more than a decade ago Duncan gave me a bump on Eschaton, the only time this shitty blog got any attention out of the ordinary of beloveds and friends analog and digital, but nothing like this: the odds that a flight Earthgirl booked last August would include a pivotal figure in an unfolding American political drama are.... what?

I post the comparison stats solely for my amusement. The odds that there would be a Kate Bush birthday post on July 30th were 100%, as are the odds I'd mention that yesterday was also William Gass' birthday and the odds there will be lots of Grateful Dead songs here tomorrow for Jerry Garcia's birthday. ABC, NBC, NPR, and Crook and Liars will not be covering, nor should they.

Also this: I'm on vacation, so this blog isn't going to do what it does when I'm not on vacation, bark-wise, link-wise, wise-wise. I'll do the Egoslavian Holy Days, of course, and bark if anything barkworthy arises, but at a time when more new eyes are on the blog than ever before and - odds are - ever again, I won't be doing daily aargh-farming this coming week like I do most days except when I'm on vacation. Here's a gag I use all the time, welcome Newcomers: Fine metaphors abound.

Kidding: by Wednesday, only beloveds and friends analog and digital will be here. Meanwhile, yesterday in a bakery getting coffee in Southwest Harbor Maine, we had to make a choice. Beloveds - and one was one of the choices - and friends analog and digital know who we chose:






Photos from woods, songs and poems, will continue through vacation, as is tradition. Newcomers: music play loud, read poems out loud.







HYMN

A.R. Ammons

I know if I find you I will have to leave the earth
and go on out
     over the sea marshes and the brant in bays
and over the hills of tall hickory
and over the crater lakes and canyons
and on up through the spheres of diminishing air
past the blackset noctilucent clouds
           where one wants to stop and look
way past all the light diffusions and bombardments
up farther than the loss of sight
    into the unseasonal undifferentiated empty stark
     
And I know if I find you I will have to stay with the earth
inspecting with thin tools and ground eyes
trusting the microvilli sporangia and simplest
     coelenterates
and praying for a nerve cell
with all the soul of my chemical reactions
and going right on down where the eye sees only traces
     
You are everywhere partial and entire
You are on the inside of everything and on the outside
   
I walk down the path down the hill where the sweetgum
has begun to ooze spring sap at the cut
and I see how the bark cracks and winds like no other bark
chasmal to my ant-soul running up and down
and if I find you I must go out deep into your
    far resolutions
and if I find you I must stay here with the separate leaves



7 comments:

  1. "I wouldn't have made someone's aggregating post on Lawyers Guns and Money"
    Excuse the living hell outta me, but I am not a mere "someone" (I'm no one & nothing!) nor am I affiliated w/ LG&M.

    Last time I do anyone a favor.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Replies
    1. First, my sincere apologies - teach me to add right a citation without double-checking and attributing at six in morning before heading on a hike. It's been rectified on blog. And I know you from your joint - and I didn't know you were a Mike. I should have taken the time to look.

      Second, huh? If you're referring to my comment about this coming Wednesday, I was referring to people moving on from the Collins thing and my return to the relative anonymity of my beloved circle of friends. If that's not what you were referring to, huh?

      Delete
    2. The "comments will be seen after approval" bit. Seems harsh, unless Russkis (& Frogs, I'm sorry to say) are mercilessly spamming you.

      Don't mind me otherwise, I may have entirely too much time on my hands.

      Delete
    3. To be honest, I first enabled it because a digital friend and colleague turned asshole and would attack my wife and daughter in comments. People can vouch. I had too much spam at the time too - and still do, a dozen a day plus or minus, so I've left it on.

      Lots from Vietnam and Thailand, mostly. Weird.

      Delete
    4. I did assume there was a reason. All my spammers try to post their rot on closed to comments items. Weird indeed.

      Delete
  3. got a reply from albert goldbarth re the correct text of "laws of the universe" - more info at the comment intended to be posted where the poem is - with the kind permission of the blog owner, of course

    ReplyDelete