Barry Lopez

[vaneramos]

I thought today would be my only work day this week, but turns out Les can keep me employed tomorrow and Friday at least. How quickly anxiety evaporates! And the mind begins to seethe again with inspiration. I am lifted once more into the richness of now.

This phenomenon calls to mind one of the truest lines of poetry I've written: "Here we crouch on the brink of disaster, on the imminence of a miracle..."

This week we are performing the final tuning on the Dundas organ. There is nothing more tedious than sitting at the console all day, holding down keys while Les works in the organ loft.

On my way out the door this morning I had the presence of mind to grab a book. It happened to be Barry Lopez, Field Notes: The Grace Note of the Cactus Wren. I marvel at his capacity to write prose that illuminates both nature and the human psyche. He also writes beautiful and challenging essays, but this is a collection of short fiction. Like all the best writing, it makes me want to write.

But the book was too short. I read the entire thing today, and started again from the beginning. Tomorrow I'll take something more ambitious, maybe some of Ursula K. LeGuin's short stories.

Lopez's writing is pregnant with the sense of place. It reminds me of this remarkable stream I visited recently near the end of my Breeding Bird Survey route. It drains from Little Louie Lake into Livingstone Lake. Other than that, I don't even know it's name. I would have lingered, but black flies drove me away.

Comments

[missprune.livejournal.com]

That photo is a stunner! I wish you could make prints available - what glorious gift cards I could make with some three by five prints of that glowing silver and green...

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I've actually given that some thought, wondered about trying to sell gift cards at the local farmer's market and so on.