Month: September 2007

Turn, Turn, Turn

I woke up this morning hoping that yesterday’s sunshine would still be hanging around. Nope. High clouds. Forecasters predicted a higher chance of rain as the day went on. So, I decided I’d go to Nisqually in the morning. By the time I got there, the clouds were really thick and getting closer and closer to the ground as I walked the five mile circuit. It was cool enough that I was forced to wear my gloves for the first time this year.

Despite the best effort of hundreds of purple asters to maintain summer’s sway over the Nisqually Delta,

Purple Asters

most of what little color there was on a dark, drab Thursday was provided by bright red berries, enhanced by a bit of Photoshop,

Elderberries

and golden leaves, quickly destined to become next year’s dirt.

Golden Leaves

It was so dark that many of the shots I took of moving birds and animals were blurry, despite setting my camera’s ISO to 400. Most of the landscape, as in this shot of a Great Egret was so drab that it would have looked nearly the same in Black and White Film.

Great Egret

It didn’t help that there weren’t many birds about, at least birds that I haven’t seen, and shown here, many times before.

Still, the highlight of the day, though not the best pictures, came when a lady walking the other way asked me what had just crossed the trail and I noticed two river otters looking back at us. They were moving way too fast to get very good pictures in the low light but pictures are never going to give you the same rush I always feel when I see them in the wild:

River Otter in Swamp

No, to get that feeling you’ll have to get out there yourself.

P.S. As was to be expected, the sun came out right after I got home.

A Little More Sunshine

Today was supposed to be the sunny day of the week, and I was planning to go to Nisqually since I haven’t been there for two weeks. It was clear when I woke up, though, that the sky was anything but clear, with dark, threatening clouds hanging barely above our rooftop.

So I decided to stay home, nursing my bronchitis and try to get caught up on some projects I promised to do but had to put off after yesterday’s web site problems. I managed to get quite a lot done and still take Skye for his morning walk. All in all, it was turning into a rather productive day.

Then at 1:30, too late to go to Nisqually, it turned beautifully sunny. So I did the only thing I could, head to Pt Defiance Rose Garden to take pictures of the Dahlias.

The first thing I saw when I arrived was the sun shining through this yellow and orange dahlia, glowing with translucence.

Sun Shining Through Dahlia

Then I walked around to the other side and was equally struck by the brilliant gold, yellow, and red colors, solid and steadfast.

Red and Gold Dahlia with Fly

When I got home, I couldn’t decide which shot best captured the brief but brilliant fall sunshine.

So I spent an hour or two with Photoshop, trying to discover a fresh way of conveying the joy I always feel here in the Pacific Northwest when sunshine bursts through days of clouds, and everything seems cleaner, brighter, and fresher than before the rain descended.

Close up of Fly on Dahlia

Dugan’s Poems Two

When I first read Alan Dugan’s Poems Two while in college, I kept a record of poems I liked on a notecard, a notecard that I transferred over to his collected poems when I bought it last year. I thought it might be interesting to compare my favorites then and now. I liked less poems this time, but the two I did like were two of those I liked when I first read.

I’m not sure whether it’s frightening or comforting that I chose the same poems forty years later. Although I’d like to think my tastes have improved with age, I guess I could rationalize that I had as good of taste then as I have now, at least in poetry.

i guess you’ll have to look at the two poems which seem, to me, at least to represent some Dugan’s greatest strengths. I suppose â€?”Credo” must have seemed particularly relevant to me as a college senior who was about to graduate and had spent most of his college career studying poetry, with absolutely no desire to purse a career in teaching at a college:

CREDO

They told me, “You don’t have
to work: you can starve,”
so I walked off my job
and went broke. All day
I looked for love and cash
in the gutters and found
a pencil, paper, and a dime
shining in the fading light,
so I ate, drank, and wrote:
“It is no use: poverty
is worse than work, so why
starve at liberty? when I
can eat as a slave, drink
in the evening, and pay
for your free love at night.”

I’m sure this poem resonated with me because one of the reasons I didn’t pursue a career in the arts was precisely the fear of starving. I’d seen my father work way too hard to earn a living to ever want to go down that road myself.

On the other hand, after spending four of the best years of my life studying poetry I wasn’t exactly looking forward to spending the rest of my life working for a bank or for Dun and Bradstreet.

You’ll notice, though, that the poet wrote â€?”It is no use: poverty/ is worse than work” but it doesn’t say that he actually went out and got a job. It might be significant that this poem appears later in the volume:

ARGUMENT TO LOVE AS A PERSON

The cut rhododendron branches
flowered in our sunless flat.
Don’t complain to me, dear,
that I waste your life in poverty:
you and the cuttings prove: Those
that have it in them to be beautiful
flower wherever they are!, although
they are, like everything else, ephemeral.
Freedom is as mortal as tyranny.

I’ll have to admit I was often, though not always, attracted to the young girls who hung around poetry circles. Rejecting arbitrary forms of beauty was appealing, at least until I noticed leg hair sticking out of the dark nylon stockings. My recent trip to Boulder, Colorado, however, caused me to wonder whether living an alternative lifestyle might not have some rather deleterious effects on both your health and looks, at least as you begin to age.