Working with Wet Wood In the Wet Wood

 

I was out in the woods behind my house, and I came across a lot of branches and roots scattered about. Everything is so wet and broken after a week of rain and wind. As I was looking at the variety of shapes and sizes of branches and how they interacted with each other, a deer wandered across an open space and into the shadows of the trees its feet silent on the soft ground. Like a creature from a dream, it moved slowly and continuously disappearing as it went under the trees.

I gathered some branches and carried them back to a flat open space behind the garage in back of my house. I remember what Andy Goldsworthy said about the work keeping you warm when it is going well. I can’t say objectively how it went, but I did not notice the cold and wet while I arranged the branches. I worked for almost an hour and as it was getting dark snapped a few pictures of my progress. I will work some more tomorrow. The branches are light and brittle. I expected them to be more water logged. I am thinking I should call it “Brittle Wood Weaving.” It is far from finished and some other name might occur to me. It is pleasant work almost like meditation when I am absorbed in it. Taking the pictures in the half light was frustrating though and made me almost forget how natural the rest of the experience was. Process is experience and product is documentation of the experience. The experience was good. The rest is not important.

Sunday Walk at Dusk

I walk back from the asphalt of the school playground

where I picked up a piece of wood

in the shape of a tree thought

blown from above in the wind

of  two nights ago.

I walk along the sidewalk home thinking

someone might mistake this branch for a gun

in the headlight glare.

so I carry it loosely swinging by two fingers

pointing the delicate web of lichen into the headlight

to reflect pale green above the gray silver bark.

maybe they see me and think

about the darkness that I am not.

maybe they only see me vaguely with no comprehension

simply a blank silhouette against the dark shadow trees

and the sky holding the last of the day’s blue around the edges of

oncoming clouds.

Maybe they see me and think.

 

 

 

I don’t do enough walking at night. It is strange how it makes me feel younger, a little adventurous, but not in danger.  My mind opens up in different ways when I walk in the dark. I become much less a visual creature and stretch out more with my thoughts, trusting my feet to fall right.

Before my walk I was feeling a bit harassed by thoughts of things I wanted to get done before my weekend comes to a close. Now I feel calmly ready to get what I can done. And I will let tomorrow take care of itself.

A New Month / A New Novel: NaNoWriMo

Two years ago, in November,  just after I started my blog, I wrote 50,000 words that almost came together as a novel. That was my first NaNoWriMo experience. It was good to find out that I was capable of putting that many words together around a mostly coherent, semi-cohesive story. I still work on making this blob of words into a form that works as a novel, and it is still in the cat herding, jello nailing stages. Most of the pieces are there and moving toward a conclusion that has yet to materialize in a workable form.  I struggle cheerfully with it now and then like a 50,000 piece jigsaw puzzle sitting on a table off to the side of part of my mind that writes. I have consolidated the scattered pieces into 4 or 5 main groupings that still  need to be connected in the middle and finished off in satisfying way that has yet to appear.

Last year I made a half hearted start at NaNoWriMo, but my life was too stressful and overwhelming at the time. I never really got started. This year I am fairly stress free thanks to a great new job and feeling of optimistic creativity to go with it. So I am embarking once again on the journey of 50,000 words. This also will fulfill one of my goals for 101 in 1001, writing the first draft of a new novel, killing 2 birds with one novel (these are strictly metaphoric cats, birds and jello; no real animals or gelatin products will be herded, nailed or killed in the making of  these novels.)

Today I am off to a good start. I will be posting my efforts as pages, but I warn you they will be rough and skip around some as I will write the pieces of the story as they inspire me. Each piece should be between 1000 and 2000 words and may be posted in batches. I will appreciate any feedback or ideas as long as they are thoughtful and constructive. I will try to maintain my once a week pace for blog entries this month, but the novel will definitely come first.

 

 

“Auschwitz is not only behind us.”

“Auschwitz must be comprehended in the context of its historical past, be recognized when it happens in the present, and not be ruled out blindly for the future.”

Gunter Grass  “A Father’s Difficulties in Explaining Auschwitz to His Children”

“My children have their doubts. They say: You don’t believe in anything anyway. I admit to my unbelieving life, and tell them: As soon as belief gets ahead of reason you can count on the demise of both politics and literature. Examples include the belief in one God, the belief in Germany, and the belief in true Socialism.”

Gunter Grass “Literature and Politics”

I have been reading a lot about the early part of the 20th century in Germany and the events and effects of what occurred then and there.

W. H. Sebald “The Emmegrants”, Ursula Hegi “Stones from the River”, Gunter Grass “The Tin Drum”, Roberto Belano “2666″, and a graphic novel “Berlin”, as well as many works by Kafka have been giving me some understanding of the enmeshing social and cultural atmosphere that produced the horror that was Auschwitz and the whole nightmare of the Holocaust and the insuing costs that left scars on the world.

Fear is the common thread that weaves this tapestry of doom. Fear disseminated by people who want to control the destiny of a nation and use it to hypnotize people and by degrees convince them to accept inhumanity as the only appropriate measure to protect their way of life.

Every time Dick Cheney or Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck speaks about what we should fear and why we must act on those fears. I am thankful that we have for the moment pushed them to side to focus on some of the pressing issues that face us as a nation. When they use the examples of Hitler and the Third Reich to paint the current political situation in blackest most fearful terms, they are actually using the methodology of the Nazi’s. I think we should fear unreasonable, unsubstantiated  fear and single minded devotion to blind faith in anything. Let’s think things through and look for evidence. Let’s keep our eyes and minds open to posibilities and continue to fill the air with our dreams for a world full of people who can discuss and celebrate differences without the shadow of unreasonable fear. Then Auswitz will be behind us, as well as Rawanda, and Vietnam, and Iraq, and Afghanistan and torture for freedom’s sake.

We do have a long way to go before we are far enough ahead of this thing that it can’t creep up and bite us in the ass again. Maybe we need better rearview mirrors, or maybe take turns looking out, but we have to know what the thing looks like in order to avoid it. When we are looking for a high-stepping, swastika resplendant mob it might sneak up on us in the form of some nice people concerned about morals, or anti-terrorist legislation to keep us safe. Your favorite relatives and best friends could be involved. That is how it gets in when we are afraid to disagree with nice people about their bad ideas and unreasonable fears. Fear is the monster that closes the mind to humanity: careful listening, respectful conversation, and diligent open-minded inquiry are the weapons that will slay it. These are the things that keep us  from reliving the horror of Auschwitz.

A New Calender To Fill Up

This is the cover from my calender from July 08 through July 09. This year was a mix of many ideas and moods a lot of them frustrating and disappointing. I am now just one month into a new calender, and have yet to put a blank sheet on it for doodling (no long boring meetings). Already it has been eventful. I have quit my old job and as a result I got to finish my August with circus camp, which was totally inspirational. I got to meet a one armed juggler and family counselor who juggles bowling balls, and I get a few days off before I start my new job this week. A job that I hope will give me a lot more inspiration and joy. last year had some dark and desperate times almost all of them job related. I am hoping that the change I am making will make a huge difference in my creative life. It is already having a good effect on my outlook. Thursday is my first teacher in-service and potluck meeting with parents. For once I am not dreading paperwork days and multiple days of meetings in which I have to listen to the word from on high and not so high. I am in charge of the preschool, but I aim to invite children and parents into a learning collaboration. I think in this new coop school setting it will be possible. I know this year will be full of challenges and adjustment, but I am really looking forward to working with children and families and not having to prove that I am doing something by entering data and checking boxes. My documentation this year will be photographs and works of art, language samples and videos. The challenges will be how to cram it all into a tiny classroom and the time that I know will seem to short for all the ideas we want to explore.