Fire gyre; log turned cat.
There’s a lot you can do with a camera app.
(I see the charred log taking the form of the back of a cat, but I come from a clan of those allergic to cats so do not know much about them. Click on pic if you cannot see the whole image.).
We accidentally disturbed this nest hidden in willow stalks by a pond but were able to re-situate before it hit ground or water. Quickly left it and kept our distance. The mother seems to be revisiting it today so hopefully all is well.
If you cannot see whole image, please click on it.
I am uploading from mobile device which sometimes makes the photos too big. If it doesn’t show up on your browser–and you are not freaked out by insects– click on pic.
A bear! So cool! A little terrifying! But mainly cool. Thinking of poems and novels but hard to think of posting anything that can compare with the natural beauty around me in upstate NY. (Or the drama!)
If you cannot see any photo in full, just click on it.
I am posting this photo from a mobile device and am a little worried that it won’t show in full on a non-mobile device – i.e. regular computer. The telephone pole is supposed to be in the exact center – it got there, sort of, by accident, but that is where it is supposed to be. If it doesn’t show up properly first look, it will if you click on the photo.
So far, my blog break has not been very productive in terms of writing, but I have done a lot of escapist reading! Though photos are of the country, I have been in and out of New York doing escapist reading in much of my free time, even walking on the sidewalk. It is possible (if I do not get hit by a car or other pedestrian) that this is useful as part of the problem with the novel manuscripts I am trying to rewrite is that I need to make the plots move more quickly. Escapist reading is very informative in terms of giving one samples of quickly moving plots. Escapist reading while walking on a city sidewalk is very useful in terms of learning to skip one’s self along quite quickly at times – like when crossing the street. So… so… so… perhaps it is useful. I do find it hard to work on a big project in small snatches of time–and I miss the fun and engagement of smaller pieces – but will keep trying a bit longer. (Or maybe will cheat a bit more and write some short pieces!) At any rate, thanks much for stopping by. k.
Unfortunately, this photo when first posted only showed up partially as the App upload was too big. I just love the line down to the green leaves and the pear blossoms in the background. The great thing about old blossoming trees is that you can have beautiful flowers without having had to plant them!
To A Young Porcupine, Killed
We might have gone to the same palm reader
if we believed in palm readers,
but porcupines don’t, as a matter of instinct,
and me – my lifeline fades half-way
across my hand.
And if the psychic had squinted
into your palm’s inked crease,
would she have warned you away
from dogs?
And what would she have said
to your mother, who, I suspect, quivers close-by–
That you can do everything right, even heroically,
and yet not save each day.
The dog, its eyes still able
to show hurt, is hurried to the vet.
but I come back to you,
turning with a stick your torn form,
hiding what’s been made meat.
Sometimes our natures
fail us -like the dog who swoops
into a muzzle of needles.
Sometimes, it’s simply chance
that lets us down – like you, sniffed out
by a lonely stream–
Then there are times like this, those
like me, who try to see ourselves as immune,
deciding that thumbs,
sticks, cameras (maybe even
guns) will protect us from
random fates; will save our young too
from the clutch of the
unreadable.
Your fingers stretch out,
in the position I’ve managed,
your palm gently cupped
and so like mine that we might have gone
to the same palm reader, had we believed
our lives were held
in the lines of our hands.
**********************************
I’ve missed you all terribly! But I have been very busy with my job, and adjusting to new life of back and forth – city and country -and some other pretty serious life issues. And I have at least been looking at one of the novels (I am tempted to say, stupid novels), I am trying to rewrite.
The experience described above has been very much on my mind too though — a porcupine killed by the dog of a friend and neighbor (not my old blind Pearl) and I have been trying and trying to write something about it. I still don’t think I’ve gotten down what I wanted to say, and I’m sorry to those of you that find the picture disturbing. It is disturbing. Very sad on all counts.
ManicDDaily 
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