Tag: vision

april 1/REST

It would have been nice to run today because it is supposed to rain and snow for the next few days, but my IT band hurt in the middle of the night, making sleeping difficult, so I’m taking a break today.

A new monthly challenge: Worms / Bugs

After a month of only experimenting with Holes, I’d like to add in a monthly challenge: worms/bugs. This challenge is inspired by a few things:

1

Last week, standing on the deck and enjoying the warming weather while Delia did her final pee of the night (what we call the “final hurrah”) I started hearing this strange noise. It sounded like rain, but it wasn’t raining. Lots of somethings crawling, all over the yard. Could it be mice? I tried staring, but couldn’t see anything but dead leaves. Whatever it was, it sounded like it was right by me. I felt like Harry Potter spotting Peter Petigrew’s moving footsteps on the Marauder’s Map but not seeing him — except I wasn’t seeing anything, just hearing it. The next week, I heard it again and managed to convince Scott to come out and listen too. And, he heard it, and was as freaked out about it as I was! If it had only been me who heard it, Scott and the kids might have dismissed it as “Sara doing Sara things” (where doing Sara things = seeing things very strangely/fantastically/improbably or impossibly).1 But he heard it and did what he does when he can’t explain it: he asked Facebook. The answer: earthworms. Of course! We didn’t rake up any of our leaves last fall (on the advice of Minneapolis Parks or Friends of the River) and the earthworms were making those leaves rustle as they moved through them. Instead of being grossed out, I find this realization delightful and delightfully freaky. Such a strange experience to hear the dirt/leaves/grass alive all around us!

2

I might not have thought to devote a month to worms if I hadn’t also picked up a book at the library 2 days ago that has an entire chapter on Bugs. In Sea of Grass, two environmental reporters write about the prairie — land that looks barren but is teeming with life. The book has a LOT of words (too many for my bad vision?), but it looks interesting. Without a way to focus, like a particular challenge to study bugs/worms, attempting to take on this book would be too overwhelming for me. So, I’ll start this month with bugs and Sea of Grass.

3

I didn’t think of this third inspiration until I started writing this entry: what living things do you often find in holes? Rabbits, of course, but also Bugs! and Worms!2

In addition to reading the bugs chapter, I can imagine studying: some great worm and bug poems; the idea of light as an insect; Socrates philosopher as gadfly/pest; rereading Kafka’s Metamorphosis; more on monarchs.

holes

Oh, the fiddle and faddle of it all! Almost too much for me, I think. The stringing of the loom with thread, I mean. RJP and I went to Michaels and got a few supplies: more thread, a sharper box cutter, pins, and (RJP’s suggestion) some canvases to put the poems on so I can use pins to connect the words of the poem with thread.

This afternoon, I measured and cut out a 4.5 x 4.5 loom and glued a 4 x 4 grid on it. Then I threaded the loom — very tiring! I think I need a bigger square, ideally more hefty than card stock, but less bulky than regular cardboard — a shoe box. And, I need to make the slats for the thread deeper and more consistently cut. My cuts weren’t the greatest because I struggled to work with the box cutter on the cardboard. More practiced, I hope, will make it easier. Maybe I should also try practicing differently: not threading an entire loom, but experimenting with a few cuts first?

  1. I’ve been hearing this phrase, “X doing X things” a lot in reference to superstar endurance athletes being awesome — like when Taylor Knibb dominates a middle distance triathlon by ripping on the bike course and the announcer says, that’s just Taylor doing Taylor things, and I’ve been wondering how I might apply it to myself. I think it works here. I don’t see my Sara-way-of-seeing as bad; I like being strange and improbable! Could that be the title of a chapbook or full collection: Sara Doing Sara Things? Another phrase I’ve been hearing a lot on podcasts and race commentary in running and triathlon is: give her her flowers or he hasn’t gotten his flowers or they deserve their flowers. It’s a reference to the practice of giving a bouquet of flowers to someone after their concert or play or some sort of performance — they also give flowers to the winners of track races in the Diamond League ↩︎
  2. Hearing Scott’s um, actually in my head, I’ll add that I understand that bugs/insects and worms are not the same thing and that worms are not bugs. Maybe a better way to name this challenge is “creepy crawling things below the ground or near the ground”? ↩︎

march 31/RUN

4.25 miles
river road, north/south
45 degrees

Overdressed. When I checked the temp, it read 45 but feels like 34 so I added a layer, which was a mistake. Lots of dripping sweat and a flushed face. My goal today was to try and take it easy with a steady 10 minute pace. I was mostly steady, but ran faster than that. I need to figure out how to slow down again; my new shoes make me want to run faster than I can sustain for long runs.

I chanted in triple berries to keep steady and to lose track of words and ideas: strawberry/blueberry/raspberry. It worked. I don’t remember what I thought about.

For some of the run, it felt hard to keep going and for some of it, it was easy. I think it’s time to experiment more with ways to distract myself — or to lead my mind in directions other than, this is hard, I can’t keep going, when can I stop?

overheard: I think I heard something at the beginning of the run that I wanted to remember but I lost it when I started chanting in triples. I do remember hearing something at the end: Two women walking, one to the other — it feels so good to have the sun on my face!

10 Things

  1. a speedy runner in white down below, on the winchell trail — beside me, then ahead of me, then gone
  2. soft, shimmering shadows
  3. a LOUD siren coming from behind, then an ambulance speeding by on the river road
  4. empty benches
  5. the view from the sliding bench: uncluttered, the sands gleaming so white that it looked like snow
  6. soft, dry dirt — no more mud
  7. one car then another then another passing by on the river road
  8. dried flowers hanging from the pink sign reading, Someone was taken by ICE here
  9. a slower biker riding on the grass between the river road and seabury
  10. the chain is still strung across the top step of the old stone steps, blocking the way down to the river

holes

Arts and crafts fun. This morning I did a test run of a yarn grid for Holes 1. A 9 x 9 square of cardboard with 1/2 inch slits all around. A long piece of blue yarn1 which I wound through the slits. A poem under the yarn grid: circles/dark holes encasing the words: off center era.

Assessment:

  • I need an exact-o knife for more precise cuts
  • the blue yarn is too thick and makes it impossible to read; try dark thread instead
  • make sure that the thread is long enough before starting to wrap it around the notches
  • follow this order: cut notches, place/attach (glue?) poem to cardboard, make sure the thread is long enough then wind it around
  • question: if I’m using thread, can I use a thinner frame, like cardstock instead of cardboard?

Here’s a picture of my test poem — should I call it, “(i’m in my)”?

a blue grid over found text, a black dot in the center then three dots scattered around it reading "off center era"
(in my) off center era

Okay, I tried it with thread and it works better, I think, but I need to be neater with it. Although, I do like the color of the blue. . . . For the larger Holes series, I need the black thread. In Holes 1, the Amsler Grid is straight, but by Holes 3, the lines will be much more crooked and warped. Black thread is much more effective for this warping.

(in my) off center era

A few more thoughts: It looks like I’ll need to take the circle-encased words and place them over the grid to be legible — the easiest way to do that is with the words as cut-outs, although I could also try weaving the thread under them (but that sounds difficult and beyond my limited skill and ability as “barely not blind.” Also, more thread is needed for back-up. And, should I create a frame around the holes poem that covers the ends? It could be a basic frame, either purchased or made, but I like the idea of creating some texture and/or a collage — maybe the black mesh fabric I bought, or ___? It needs to be something related to the holes poems and the act of reading? I’ll keep thinking about it. Would it work to have the words of the found poem on the frame?

update from yesterday’s post

First, yesterday I mentioned a discussion of three types of freedom that I was having with FWA at the dog park: I was looking for my PhD advisor’s book that discusses it. I can’t find my copy yet, but I found it online:

Second, yesterday I also mentioned that I was picking up 2 books from the library: Sea of Grass: the Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of the American Prairie and a found poem collection by Annie Dillard, Morning Like This. More on both of these tomorrow.

  1. Finding a long enough strand of yarn took at least 3 tries. I thought I had a long enough strand then it would run out half way through and I would have to unravel what I had already done. Something important to remember for the official grid: make sure the yarn/string/thread is long enough before you begin! ↩︎

march 30/HIKEWALK

1 hour
Minnehaha Off Leash Dog Park
60 degrees

A walk with Delia and FWA at the dog park. So wonderful! At some point during the walk I thought about how I’m going to remember these walks. I used to love walking and talking with my mom in the woods. Now I get to do it with Delia and FWA. Today we talked more about One Piece, both the anime and live-action version. FWA convinced Scott and I to watch it and we’re both really enjoying it. We’ve swapped out Love Boat and Little House on the Prairie for One Piece and the survival show, Alone.

The floodplain forest in early spring looks like a tree graveyard. There are dead trees in varying levels of decay everywhere. Dead trees leaning on living trees. Branchless trunks. Giant trees on their sides, some with their nest of roots exposed, others with most of their bark stripped, gleaming white. FWA and I talked about what it will look and feel like once the living trees have leaves again. We agreed that we will like it less because it will feel too hemmed in.

This feeling of being hemmed in, and less free, led to a discussion of freedom. FWA mentioned freedom from and freedom to and I tried (not quite successfully) to recall my PhD advisor’s class on different types of freedom: negative freedom (freedom from), positive freedom (freedom to) and a freedom related to social welfare — what is this third freedom called? I’ll have to look it up in her book tomorrow.

walk: 2+ miles
to Arbeiter
73 degrees

I had to pick up 2 books at the library (more on that tomorrow), so Scott and I decided to walk to the library and then over to Arbeiter. Since I’m taking a break from alcohol, I tried their NA beer, which was really good. In my 20s, I was incredulous that anyone would drink a non-alcoholic beer — why bother? But now, in my 50s, I’m more open-minded. I suppose the NA beers have gotten better since then, so it’s easier to be open-minded.

holes

I have decided that my Holes series has reached the status of obsession, which is exciting and fun and uncomfortable as I wonder if it’s all too much. I think the discomfort is good for me; I’ve been trying to not be too much for too long.

This morning, I finished drawing the Amsler grid over the mapped poem in Holes 1. I don’t like it drawn on; with my bad vision, it is too sloppy. A new thought, which is really an old thought that keeps returning: create a grid with string or thin yarn and put it over the mapped poem. Make a frame out of cardboard with notches for the string, like I did in elementary art class — what are those called? In addition to that grid, add string lines linking the words and making the poem. Use the string grid to attach these extra strings, or pins or __ ?

The center of an Amsler Grid has a dot; it’s the dot you focus on you look at the lines. As I was drawing my grid’s dot onto the poem, I realized that it (the dot) could be the reason why I’m using circles to encase my words. Of course, I am also using them because they are easy for me to trace. I like the idea of that center dot, which I can sometimes see and sometimes can’t, as haunting my reading and the words.

Yesterday, talking to Scott about this project I said, with my bad vision and lack of drawing/design skills, I have no business trying to make these poems and yet, I can’t stop myself. When I first started writing poetry, I had no business doing that either, and I kept going because I loved it.

Put that last thought beside another conversation I had with Scott a few days earlier. I was asking him what he thought about some lines I had drawn — do they look okay? do they make sense? He said something like, why aren’t you trusting yourself? You don’t need me to tell you whether they work or not.

There are some things I do with confidence and without consulting others — swimming, my running/writing practice. And there are many other things I don’t. Perhaps the ratio between not consulting/consulting is out of balance. I need to trust/rely on myself a bit more. A flash: it seems important to figure out this Hole project on my own. To create it without the help of others. If, because of my bad vision, I can’t execute some part of my plan with these Holes, then I need to figure out a new way to do whatever I’m trying to do.

A cardboard loom?! I searched, “weaving elementary craft weaving cardboard” and I found this YouTube video, Basic Weaving on a cardboard loom. I think that is what I was thinking about!

a return to art class in elementary school!

I hadn’t thought of it was a loom, although it makes sense — the lines on the amsler grid are the warp and the weft. I love this idea of connecting it to weaving and looms and my mom, the fiber artist! In the video, the instructor uses a full piece of cardboard, but I’m thinking of using just a frame instead.

march 28/RUN

4 miles
river road, south/wabun/bottom of locks/river road, north
38 degrees / feels like 22
wind: 15 mph / gusts: 32 mph

Another windy run. Cold-ish, too. Wore running tights, shorts, 2 long-sleeved shirts, a pull-over, a hat, a hood, gloves. I didn’t feel overheated until the end. Lots of cars on the road, not that many people on the trail. Are they all going to the No Kings March at the capitol? I (kind of) wanted to go, but big crowds are not the easiest for me and Scott, RJP, and FWA struggle in them too, so I’m skipping it.

According to my watch, I slept for 7 hours and 21 minutes last night. That is a lot for me! And, my sleep score1 was 77. I think it helped me to feel stronger on the run.

10 Things

  1. reaching the top of the wabun hill, I heard the clanging of the bell — is there a bell up here? no — it was a kid banging on something at the playground
  2. wild turkeys — 4 or 5 of them, under the ford bridge! I passed close by them as I ran up the wabun hill. By the time I return back down the hill, they were gone
  3. goose honks near the bottom of the locks and dam no. 1
  4. swirling leaves
  5. the round shadow of the light on the street lamp
  6. more scales on the gray water
  7. chanting in triple berries to keep a steady pace
  8. running on the rim of the bluff, looking down at the winchell trail which was empty and farther down than I usually remember
  9. at the top of the wabun hill, stopping to look through the chain link fence at the river
  10. a boot, stuck on a stalk on the boulevard of matt the cat’s house
serve and a boot / the pink sign near the far house says, “someone was abducted by ICE here.”

The abduction by ICE happened early on, between the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Two people were pulled from their car and taken; the car was left by the side of the road.

In addition to this boot picture, I also took some pictures of the view through the chainlink fence.

1
2
3
4

I like this series of pictures. It reminds me a little of how I see. I can see better through my peripheral vision than my central — even when and if I don’t want to. It’s distracting to focus on the edge details sometimes, and it makes what’s in the center look even fuzzier to me. In thinking about my Holes series, does this happen at all when I’m reading? Is there a way to connect this fence with the lines in an Amsler Grid? An idea: what if I drew a giant Amsler Grid over the top of the entire, 4 panel, Holes 1 poem?

  1. What does the sleep score mean? I’m less interested in the specifics of it at this point, and more interested in tracking which direction that number is headed. 77, which is only “OK” according to Apple health info, is the highest number I’ve had in the past almost 2 weeks. A goal by May: a number in the 80s. ↩︎

march 27/RUN

5.5 miles
ford loop
35 degrees / feels like 18
wind: 18 mph / gusts: 29 mph

Brr. I was underdressed this morning in only one long-sleeved shirt, a vest, tights, shorts, stocking cap, gloves. It was the wind that made it feel cold. Running north and east it blew into me. It was especially bad on the ford bridge. Even with the wind, a great run. Sun! Shadows! The feeling of spring!

Some of the run was hard, some of it wasn’t. A little bit of unfinished business, legs that were sometimes sore and heavy. Does it have to do with the iron pill I’m taking? I am not anemic, but on the very low end of ferritin stores — and have been for 4 or more years now — so I’m getting serious with trying to increase my iron. A pill everyday, first thing in the morning with a grapefruit. No coffee or other food for at least an hour. Hopefully my ferritin will increase a lot so I don’t have to get an expensive iron infusion. And hopefully that increased ferritin will make it easier for me to run longer because Scott and I signed up for the marathon in October again!

10 Things

  1. a siren — off in the distance, then closer, closer, then almost right behind me, then stopped — the closer it got, the more distorted the siren became — I wonder who/what needed this emergency truck?
  2. a dirt trail behind a bench and railing at the bottom of the summit hill that led to a delightfully open view of the river and the west bank
  3. running over the lake street bridge, wind on water, a scaled surface, gray
  4. bright blue sky with a few puffy clouds
  5. an almost full parking lot at the monument, only 2 spots open
  6. several groups of walkers with dogs, some emerging from the trails below the bluff, some entering them
  7. the wind on the ford bridge! slow and steady, squaring my shoulders and leaning into it
  8. goose honks under the ford bridge
  9. empty benches
  10. an interesting image of vine on the neighbor’s fence
fence / 27 march

holes

Yesterday I watched the clip with the caterpillar from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland and I started thinking more about language and letters and our relationship with words and meaning through reading.

O u e i o A

The scene begins with Alice peering through the leaves at a caterpillar smoking a pipe and singing the vowels. The vowels — the building blocks of language — is this cellular level of the english language? Taken on their own, apart from words and sentences and paragraphs, the vowels aren’t non-sense, but they offer very little sense. I found an old stencil of the alphabet that I inherited from my mom in a drawer yesterday. Could I stencil in the vowels in a way that didn’t look cheesy or ridiculous? I’m not sure.

A thought while I was running: I’m in the process of editing my poems, which involves erasing holes that contain words that I’m no longer using. What if those erased words, those ghosts, remained as traces, haunting the page? Almost like an after image? I’ve noticed that after staring at these dark holes on the page, they start to move around and appear in places they aren’t. (writing that last sentence, I’m reminded of Alice’s nonsense speech to her cat: nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t

A deconstructed amsler grid: an Amsler grid has 38 lines, not including the frame. I decided to use pieces of dried spaghetti and scatter 38 of them on top of 4 panel poem. I’m not sure what I will use in the final version. Sticks? Lines at strange angles drawn on the paper, over the holes and text? Here’s a picture of it.

holes 5 / wip

I had no plan for where the lines would go, I just dropped the spaghetti wherever — should there be a plan, or is haphazard better? Maybe I scatter the dried spaghetti haphazardly first, then replicate that with thick black lines on the actual poem? The only rules: 38 lines, all the same length.

Ok, I scattered the spaghetti and drew in the lines. Here’s what it looks like:

holes 5 wip 2

I just realized I only added 32 lines. I need to add 6 more. Are the lines dark enough? Does it make sense that they are a deconstructed amsler, or do I need to add in a more explicit reference to that somewhere on the poem?

march 25/RUN

5 miles
highland bridge (old ford plant)
58 degrees

58 degrees?! 58 degrees. Spring is back. Today I wore shorts, a short-sleeved shirt and a pullover that I took off before the end of the second mile. Ran south on the river road, down towards the locks and dam no. 1, up the wabun hill, over the ford bridge, to the edge of highland bridge park and across to the river where it is above the old hydroelectric power plant. As I neared it, I could hear the water rushing over the concrete apron at the locks and dam. The river is low; the sandy island in the middle was exposed.

The birds! Sounding like spring. The river! Sparkling in the sun. The shadows! Both sharp (distinct) and soft (the bare branches almost feathery on the path).

overheard: one biker to another — he’s between jobs right now. No contracts and no money coming in.

Is it because it’s warm, or because I started just a little too fast, but the second half of the run was hard(er). Took some breaks to admire the view. On the St. Paul side, I noticed a sticker on the fence that looked like the head of the “Hanker for a Hunka Cheese” guy:

“Time for Timer”

holes

Worked on Holes 5 today, mostly mapping the words on the page. Here’s a draft of the text:

A hole perspective
life on the way to Disney’s wonder land

I fall through the center
of a book

everything on the page
at strange angles
separated from each other
in the firelit room*

a “what is this?” feeling starts
while watching
text bloom into nonsense

O the beauty of vision
gone mad.

*not sure about this line — I’m thinking of, like in a firelit room, but low light from a fire doesn’t separate words, it softens them, makes them dim so they almost become ghosts of the text they were

holes 5, work in progress

march 23/HIKERUN

hike: 60 minutes
minnehaha dog park
37 degrees

Went to the dog park with FWA and Delia this morning. Chilly but sunny and still down in the floodplain. Beautiful. No snow, hardly any mud, lots of felled trees. Halfway in we encountered an awesome dog carrying a stick that was 3 times as wide as his head. His owner said, the governor is about 200 feet ahead. Last summer, I recalled watching a video of Gov. Walz being interviewed at the dog park, so I knew he came here. About 5 minutes later, there he was! Alone and friendly. Hello! Hi! Of course, I couldn’t see well enough to recognize him, but FWA could. I wish I could have seen that it was him. I would have told him thank you.

5 Dog Park Things / 5 Winchell Trail Things

  1. a section of the river, sparkling in the sun
  2. the bark of the giant felled tree that FWA and I have walked around all this year had been stripped recently — a huge section of the trunk was barkless and gleaming white
  3. faint footprints through the small stretches of mud
  4. a motorboat rumbling by, making waves that rushed onto the shore near Delia
  5. a woodpecker knocking on some dead wood, another (or the same one?) laughing
  6. shadows everywhere — trees, the fence, lamp posts
  7. the winchell trail path was covered in dry leaves that made a delightful crunch as I ran over them
  8. a steady stream of cars (at 3:30 pm)
  9. empty benches
  10. no snow, no puddles

2.8 miles
river road / winchell / lena smith
46 degrees

A quick run — in time and distance and speed. I should have slowed it down; it would have been easier. It’s hard to slow down in my new shoes! I was tired and felt the beginnings of a side stitch a mile in — I ate a protein bar too soon.

Today has been an off day — not terrible, there were many good moments in the hike and the run. But I woke earlier than I should have and felt, for lack of better word, weird. Untethered, fuzzy, maybe a little woozy, tired.

holes

As I continue to work on my holes poems, it has emerged that a few things are present in all of five of them: a hole, that hole’s impact on how I read, my blind spot, and the Amsler grid.

Why the Amsler Grid?

  1. it connects these hole poems with my last round of visual vision poems, mood rings, which take the shape of an amsler grid
  2. it ties in with the larger theme of all of my visual vision poems: vision tests — first, the snellen charts, then the amsler grid
  3. it gives a context for my vision loss and grounds it in within a scientific/medical model of seeing/not seeing
  4. it offers another way to visualize my untethering from that model/logic of test/diagnosis

This 4th one is especially interesting to me. I’m imagining fun ways to play with the implosion or destruction or destabilizing of the sharp, stable, rigid lines of a grid. The lines coming loose, or the lines a ladder without rungs — no way out of the hole, the lines collapsing and being sucked into the black hole, the lines forming a new path, a break in the lines — a gap, a dash, a slash, a breaking out of the lines — an opening, an exit, a room a door unlocked. What could that look like as part of my erasure poem? I mean, what, with my very limited skills in visual art, could I make possible?

I think I need to watch Alice in Wonderland again — should I read it, too? The hole in my vision as Alice’s rabbit hole. A passing through to wonderland. One difference: for Alice, Wonderland is the opposite of sense or nonsense.

everything would be what it wasn’t

I’d like to take this idea of non-sense out of the binary, Sense/Nonsense, to imagine non-sense as being more than just not sense. What if non-sense was its own kind of sense, just like Nothing is not nothing but something outside of our logic or language or ability to name it. Or, like I say in Holes 4, “a nothing that is something not sharing its secrets.

a flash: as I was working on the above list, I suddenly thought about the debate over whether or not listening to an audio book was reading. Does reading only happen with eyes? I like to distinguish it this way: reading with my eyes and reading with my ears. After this thought, a further thought: what if I created a holes poem that wasn’t visual, but aural? I could pick one of the New Yorker stories/articles that you can listen to, and figure out a poem from that. How might that work?

I had intended to work on all of this today, but I was busy all day: a birthday week coffee run with RJP, the dog park with FWA, weekly shopping with Scott, a run + cooking and laundry and a nap.

sleep

I decided to use my Apple watch this week to monitor my sleep. I’m averaging 6 1/2 hours a night, which I think is good for me, but only “okay” for my sleep score. Maybe that’s because I’m waking up every 2 hours. I have to get out of bed and stretch or go to the bathroom or walk around for 10 or 20 or more minutes before falling back asleep again. A thought occurred to me: could my low vision be contributing to my sleep problems? I googled it and yes, it might:

Visual impairment can lead to disturbances in the circadian rhythm20 and exacerbate neuropsychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression, ultimately impairing central nervous system functionality and contributing to the development of insomnia21. Existing research underscores the negative impact of visual impairment on sleep patterns. Studies conducted in Russia found that individuals with visual impairment had more than twice the odds of reporting insomnia symptoms compared to those without, with this association remaining significant even after adjusting for factors such as age and gender21. This finding further confirms the link between visual dysfunction and sleep disturbances. Community research in the U.S. suggested that older adults with visual impairment are more likely to experience various sleep issues, such as difficulty falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, early morning awakenings, and daytime sleepiness22. Additionally, such individuals often report increased disrupted sleep patterns and a higher prevalence of sleep/wake disturbances23.

low vision and insomnia study

But, this study studied different visual impairments than I have. What about cone dystrophy or macular degeneration, which has similar effects? I looked it up and found some articles that link it, but it’s mostly about anxiety over vision loss that cause the sleep disturbances. I know I have some anxiety about the final break, when none of my cone cells work and all of my central vision is gone, but I think the connection between sleeping and not seeing or seeing differently is more complicated for me. I’ll have to ask the ophthalmologist at my appointment next month.

march 22/RUN

3.9 miles
wabun hill
36 degrees

Yesterday it was 76 degrees, today 36. I didn’t mind; everything was dry and clear and I was able to run on all the walking trails in my new blue shoes! Today it’s overcast and both bright — a white sky — and gloomy — everything dull and bare. Did I see any shadows? I don’t think so.

I felt strong, not quite like I could run for several hours without stopping, but at least believing that it is possible. I also felt untethered from the world, everything fuzzy and me, floating above it or outside of it.

10 Things

  1. early on, another running passing me, their feet slap slap slaping the ground
  2. several geese honking below the ford bridge
  3. empty benches
  4. two women stopped on the edge of the trail near the 42nd street parking lot, talking — I couldn’t hear what they were saying
  5. heading up the wabun hill — no one else around, just me and the dirt and the dead leaves
  6. running through wabun: several people playing frisbee golf, two little kids running around the course, giggling
  7. lots of traffic on ford and the river road — cars moving fast, no sunday drivers today!
  8. a man in a bright orange jacket, sitting on the edge, above a ravine, looking out at the river
  9. the bright headlights of a car, giving off a purple glow
  10. a sound across the river road and the grassy boulevard — a gobbling turkey or a yelling kid? Undetermined

holes

I’m working on another holes poem — Holes 5. I’m using an essay about Rian Johnson, “Mystery Man” in the November 17, 2025 issue. My only requirement for an essay is that it contains the word hole, either as the word itself, or as part of/within another word. When I searched in “Mystery Man” for hole I found 4 instances of it including, “my wHOLE perspective,” “wHOLE time,” and “the wHOLE process.” I’m thinking these will be frame of my poem, especially Hole Time and Hole Perspective. What is my perspective (how do I see) with and from within my vision hole?

another part of my method: In addition to requiring a chosen essay has at least instance of “hole,” I read the essay from back to front. I started with the last paragraph, jotting down any words that stood out to me, then I read the second to last paragraph, then the third to last, and so on. It was a strange experience. I kept finding myself wondering, when I read a name I didn’t recognize, if I had missed the introduction/description of the name, then I remembered that I was reading back to front, from an assumption of familiarity to a not-knowingness (or not knowing yet-ness).

Here is a selection of words and phrases I jotted down:

  1. bookshelf
  2. stone
  3. let me
  4. still
  5. strings
  6. filters
  7. window
  8. flash
  9. beauty
  10. gathered
  11. convivial
  12. ends
  13. spectrum
  14. unexplainable
  15. gesture
  16. earthiness
  17. underside
  18. gnarled roots of a tree
  19. feel
  20. loop er
  21. limitations / limit s
  22. making diagrams with straws
  23. an older version
  24. flock
  25. singular
  1. (un) locked room
  2. mind / mind’s eye / eye
  3. tidy solution
  4. make sense of it all
  5. some measure of control over an uncontrollable world
  6. the world has gone mad
  7. center
  8. puzzle
  9. watch ed
  10. the satisfaction of seeing
  11. firelit
  12. delight
  13. smug
  14. cringe
  15. between
  16. it seemed dusty
  17. hypothetical
  18. enters
  19. throuhout
  20. leap
  21. a ghost
  22. nobody
  23. flock
  24. vision
  1. get in the way
  2. framework
  3. scam
  4. everything
  5. (r) ambling
  6. story
  7. distance
  8. slanted
  9. attention
  10. made
  11. backward
  12. moving around
  13. wonder
  14. read
  15. what is this?
  16. slip away
  17. lept
  18. feeling trapped
  19. peculiar
  20. sunshine
  21. looming
  22. house
  23. couldn’t see
  24. covered in string
  25. over

This essay is five pages long, so I’ll have to figure that out — all 5 pages, or 4 to make it fit more evenly? Or even less?

march 21/WALKGETOUTICE

walk: 120 minutes
with Scott and Delia
deep in the gorge + the winchell trail
76 degrees

I’m writing this the next morning because I took a break (mostly) from my computer and writing. So warm! I wore shorts and a short-sleeved shirt on our walk/hike! We walked through the neighborhood to the river and when we crossed the road to throw away Delia’s poop bag, we decided to take the old stone steps down to the river. The floodplain forest was filled with fallen trees and dead leaves: winter’s aftermath. The river was open and flowing. People everywhere — it wasn’t crowded, just a person walking a dog here, two people talking on a blanket there. Everyone enjoying the sun and the warm wind and the lack of ice.

I loudly misidentified a person as a wild turkey. Oh look, a wild TURKEY! Why is it that only when I am mis-seing something do I bother to say it out loud, and with such volume? It’s funny, and Scott and I laughed about it, but it is also frustrating. I sound like an idiot or mad. I said to Scott it’s funny as comedy and irony (the irony because I only declare these things when I’m very wrong).

holes

A return: the hole in Holes 1, which was the start of all of these holes — Another name for barely not blind is a hole in your vision that makes for an easy fellowship with the word. Now I’m thinking that I should tighten these poems up and make them only about reading. So, the hole in Holes 2 would be: a hole through the bottom of / the / wor / d / here / it is / unprofitable / to / have / faith / in / the / visible. And Holes 4 would be only: you look at sky, || you look at || words || you || don’t || see || the || gaping hole / and || its / graveyard / for / failed / cone / cell / s / you see / snow flake marble dust / seltzer / fizz|| a / nothing / that / is / something / not / shar/ ing / its / secrets

Get Out ICE

ICE agents are still here, but not at the levels they were a month ago. Two of the leaders that caused the most damage — Noem and Bovino — have been removed (Bovino announced his retirement the other day). Even so, the effects — psychological, physical, economic — still linger for many Minnesotas. Food is still being delivered to families afraid to leave their homes, organizations are still raising money to help people pay their rent. The stop signs around my house still declare, “STOP ICE.” The latest threat: Trump threatens to send ICE agents to airports to take over TSA jobs abandoned by workers not paid because of the partial government shutdown.

Since just after an ICE agent murdered Renee Good on 7 jan, I’ve been adding “Get Out ICE” to my log entries, both in the title and as a tag. I think it’s time to stop. A better thing to add now might be: What about the Epstein files? or Stop the war!

Mary Oliver Doc on PBS this summer!

I’m looking forward to this documentary!

“I was save by poetry. I was saved by the beauty of the world.”

I want to put MO’s idea of being saved by the beauty of the world beside the banner that Hanif Abdurraqib has above and between two door frames in this Instagram picture: “LIFE’S NOT OUT TO GET YOU” Yes! Always a good reminder.

march 19/RUNGETOUTICE

4.3 miles
minnehaha falls and back
44 degrees
10% puddles

Spring! Sun! Sharp shadows! Clear paths with far less puddles! I felt strong and satisifed and at ease in my body. Well, mostly at ease. Because it’s messy out by the gorge, I wore an old pair of shoes — the ones that don’t quite work. Sometimes my gait felt awkward, my feet not hitting the ground in the right spot or in the right way.

Marveled at the river’s surface as I ran above it. So beautiful with its frozen surface. In the past, I’ve described the surface as vast or barren or eerie, surreal or otherworldly, but today other words came to mind: still, frozen, fixed, unmoving, deadened, paused, suspended. Yes! I think these words better describe its strange beauty for me. Looking at it is like looking at a film still. Looking at it feels like everything is paused, suspended in time.

10 Things

  1. gushing falls — I could hear their loud descent and see their white foam
  2. looking down at the oak savanna, tall, slender, bare branches mixed with their shadows to make a mess of lines on the snow — how much of it was actual trees, how much shadow? I couldn’t tell
  3. water dripping fast and strong over the limestone edges in the ravine at 42nd street
  4. empty benches
  5. a guy walking with a small dog and looking at his phone
  6. someone biking near the falls playing some mellow music out of speakers
  7. taking off my sweatshirt, running with bare arms, seeing a walker with bare arms too
  8. sirens in the distance, a loud, sustained whistle
  9. the walking trails are still covered in snow
  10. the gutter that was gushing water yesterday now only has trickles

Off and on throughout the run, I recited Alice Oswald’s “The Story of Falling,” sometimes reciting it in my head, sometimes out loud.

Holes

I’ve mapped some more of Holes 4 and . . . it’s a lot. Will this just look like an ugly, jumbled mess? Yesterday, talking through this with Scott, he said something like, do what serves the poem and the meaning you are trying to convey (or the effect you are trying to achieve). In terms of meaning, the words of the first section of the poem are about what I see instead of a gaping hole: shimmering, fizzy, ephemeral or elusive (hard to see, fleeting) things: snow flake marble dust, seltzer fizz, a nothing that is something not sharing its secrets. Perhaps these ephemeral things have come loose from what bound them to “normal” sight and its monitoring through tests like the amsler grid; it’s where you dwell when normal sight is not longer possible. So maybe the unraveling occurs prior to this hole? Yes, the unraveling (and vision of amsler grid as broken strings happens in 2 and 3, Does that mean that Holes 4 is all disconnected free-floating words/phrases? If so, how to make it possible for others to read it? I could place the poem near the center, around the gaping hole. I could also number the pages/sections and mark each word with a page number? Yes, I like this!

And hours later, I’m thinking more of using a distorted Amsler Grid at the center of Holes 4, and the black hole that the grid is collapsing into is the shape of blind spot.

Another mini project: can I learn how to draw decent-enough eyeballs — pupil and iris only?

amsler idea
very rough eye
poem text

Get Out ICE

This flyer about the next No Kings march came up on Facebook from Minnesota’s Lt. Gov Peggy Flanagan (and hopefully our next governor?!):

“In Minnesota, we’ve seen the federal government at its worst — and showed the world how to fight back.

Now, I’m honored that the flagship No Kings protest will be held here in the Twin Cities. Together, we’ll show Donald Trump that we don’t do kings.”

NO KINGS TWIN CITIES VOL. 3. Joan Baex Jane Fonda Maggie Rogers. March 28, 12 pm. March then rally at the State Capital.
NO KINGS TWIN CITIES VOL. 3. Joan Baex Jane Fonda Maggie Rogers. March 28, 12 pm. March then rally at the State Capital.