3.3 miles
river road, north/south
68 degrees
Whew. Went out early — before coffee or any food — because it was already 68 degrees. The warm temps and unfinished business made the run harder than it should have been. Still, it was a beautiful morning, especially when I was walking and feeling the breeze. A lot of attention was given to making sure I didn’t finally have the poop story that most runner’s seem to have, so was I able to notice 10 things? Yes!
10 Things
- the welcoming oaks — green and tall, difficult to see anything other than the trunk
- the tree that looks like a tuning fork
- light shining on top of ancient boulder, which was empty of rocks
- a parks truck under the lake street bridge, workers up in a bucket doing something to the bridge, listening to music — a familiar classic rock song — was it Hotel California?
- the river, the air were still, quiet
- a flash of a sound below — was that a coxswain?
- a roller skier in a bright yellow shirt
- the mitten tulips are still up, near the trestle
- two older white women, dressed all in black, discussing nutrition
- the sliding bench seems to have slid a bit more, the green beneath has grown thicker and greener
holes
Last night I had a thought: create a visual poem that uses the image of bugs pinned to a specimen board as a way to critically express the idea of words trapped in fixed meanings. But, which NYer essay, which found poem? This morning, another thought: use the essay about the New York cemetery (Hole 4 / Still Green) and part of the poem that I had previously cut. Yes!
draft, previously cut text:
you
can’t
exhume
the
bodies
but
you can
make
room
for
life
in this place
where
the dead
are
interred
crack
open a grave
with
a
new
way
of
seeing (or reading?)
inspirations: a specimen board + Alice in Wonderland, caterpillar scene
Here are some examples of the specimen board from an article about bug collections at Manitoba Museum:
I could imagine this as part of an installation, with the words/phrases cut out individually and positioned in a heap with a label identifying them. The second image has the specimen’s in a drawer. I’d like ot experiment with that too — O have a jewelry box that might work for that, and drawers from an old optometrist desk. Fun!
I mentioned Alice in Wonderland as an inspiration because of how prominent making language strange is in this scene. Also, the bug connection, and the butterfly at the end!
I came up with this idea because pins seem to be playing a prominent role in my visual poetry. They started as the temporary way to achieve the effect I wanted, but at some point I realized that they were another character in my visual story.
The question now: do I work on this now, or keep working on my blooms? Sara-this-second’s answer is: blooms first!
