In order not to lose
“In order not to lose all that he had gained, he had to move forward and risk it all.” - James Baldwin
We write
“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.” – Anais Nin
Dovecoats
“It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of our days and nights without any obstructions between us and the celestial bodies, if the poet did not speak so much from under a roof, or the saint dwell there so long. Birds do not sing in caves, nor do doves cherish their innocence in dovecoats.” – Henry David Thoreau
harmoniums
in vonnegut’s the sirens of titan, beings exist on mercury that feel neither envy nor lust nor hunger nor ambition nor fear. they are translucent, diamond-shaped, resemble “spineless kittens,” and live off of the vibrations produced by mercury’s song, which results from the meeting of day-without-end and night-without-end. there are only two messages that these beings, called harmoniums, communicate to one another: “here i am, here i am, here i am” and “so glad you are, so glad you are, so glad you are.”
here on earth, things seem so much more complicated. but also, in our finer moments, exactly the same.
tea bag
The tea bag bobbed up and down in the chestnut-colored water, which was now tepid.
Back at home the stars are fading, and you’re nowhere. You’re nowhere.
With her thumb and index finger, she pulled at one corner of the soggy translucent paper pouch. She pulled it up out of the water and watched the tea drip down from the corner opposite the one she held, in a rivulet that after an instant turned into isolated drops that fell back into the sea of tea below.
I don’t know how we got so far away. I guess we drove for twenty days.
She took a sip of the cooling liquid, chamomile with honey and vanilla, tasting it first through her nose, and then on her lips, and then on her tongue and down her throat. She double clicked on another track and let Visions of Johanna wash over her arms and legs and down her spine.
We all sit here stranded, though we’re all doing our best to deny it. And Louise holds a handful of rain, tempting you to defy it.
She takes another sip of tea, hearing harmonica and percussion. Another sip of tea, this time with a slurp.
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously…
Head down, on her knee, smelling cigarette smoke and masala incense, eyes closing, ears receiving twanging guitar and percussion. A dull pain emerges at the base of her neck and creeps out, behind her ears and up to her temples. She allows it to persist.
Little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously.
She pushes aside her curtain to let the light in and realizes that it’s already night time.
Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial. Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while.
She leaves the window exposed so that the light will come in in the morning, and climbs into bed.
fungus among us
a friend described mushrooms to me as the “internet of the earth” because of their networks of fibers (mycelia) that regulate the flow of nutrients and H2O in soil. thinking about all the cool things mushrooms can do made me want to take a closer look at their physical selves. these photographs were taken on the tree-lined trails that lie beyond the gardens at Garden Farme.
zippy and soy bean
these are surely two of the loveliest dogs ever to grace this side of the mississippi. they are brother and sister and thirteen years old, and legend has it that one winter, zippy, the brother, saved soy bean, his sister, after she fell through the ice and into the creek that runs around and through the farm. soy bean’s on the left, zippy is on the right.
zippy is one of the canine loves of my life. standing in one place and looking around are two of the things he does best.
soy bean is arthritic and has a busted elbow (which is said to be related to the creek incident), but that doesn’t stop her from getting from point a to point b in a hurry.
garden farme
I’ve been living and working on an organic farm in a small town in Minnesota for the past two weeks. It’s been amazing so far. I’ve learned which weeds are good for the soil because they fix nitrogen, what happens to a plant once it reaches maturity and starts producing seeds, why it’s important to pat down the soil when you plant seeds, and what caterpillar poop looks like. I’ve also developed a mean sunburn despite constant sunscreen application. Below are some of the pictures I’ve been taking. The bright green plant in the third picture down is a lettuce called Black Seeded Simpson. It is both beautiful and delicious, and also looks really cool after thunderstorms, when the rest of the world is sepia-toned. We grow more kinds of lettuce than I can keep track of, but Black Seeded Simpson and a red romaine called Rouge d’Hiver are two of my favorites.
We also grow rhubarb, kale, spinach, basil, cilantro (my favorite thing to harvest, because it leaves its deliciousness on my hands for hours), squash, arugula, mustard greens, garlic, parsley, edamame, strawberries… It feels good to know exactly where your food is coming from.
leave a comment