Friday, April 29, 2011

the green fuse



The force that through the green fuse drives the flower

Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees

Is my destroyer.

And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose

My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.


The force that drives the water through the rocks

Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams

Turns mine to wax.

And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins

How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.


The hand that whirls the water in the pool

Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind

Hauls my shroud sail.

And I am dumb to tell the hanging man

How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.


The lips of time leech to the fountain head;

Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood

Shall calm her sores.

And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind

How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.


And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb

How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.


--Dylan Thomas


Do not go gentle into that good night.


Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Monday, April 25, 2011

written in stone

a peaceful evening on the lake took us past the red sandstone cordova cliffs, festooned with serviceberry blossoms and one person's attempt to change the world. everything we do has a ripple effect, just like the waves pushed by the wind...

one may understand the cosmos, but never the ego, the self is more distant than any star.

-g.k. chesterton, "the logic of elfland"

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

on stage

lately we've been looking at area HS auditoriums to get ideas for a new one for knoxville's hs. there are so many different designs and features. if only we had a lottery winner in town with a philanthropic bent.

"she took off to find the footlights, i took off to find the sky." -- harry chapin

Thursday, April 14, 2011

wall to wall

with so much media lately about lost soil from farming too close to waterways i found myself in indiana surveying a contributing tile system that drained a cattle feed lot. the pasture ran right up to the creek which is a major feeder of prairie creek reservoir, a water source for the city of muncie. while paddling from red rock dam to keokuk on the des moines river we saw many fields that abutted the shores and the erosion was disturbing, not to mention the pollution. with corn prices so high farmers are planting wall to wall....... is ethanol production worth it?

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

full circle

on a recent trip to indiana for a comprehensive program i chanced to paddle each morning and with high water found a passage under the road "up a creek". it reminded me of one of my first pictures taken in klagenfurt, austria along a canal. i wish all my slides were on disc but i also wish all my memories were cataloged and cross referenced too. my "computer" of a mind is an early apple iie.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

reflections

even shadows have reflections...
"the world is but a canvas to our imagination" --Henry David Thoreau