https://www.poetryfoundation.org/podcasts/75109/dismantling-the-house
Archive of Jessica Townes George
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/marie-ponsot
Recollection 2016 – September-October
B&W 35mm film – Nikon
with great thanks to Niki Taylor for chemistry, time + know how and Travers Tuttle for the kind lending of fuel receptacles to keep digging with.
It is hard to have hope. It is harder as you grow old,
For hope must not depend on feeling good
And there is the dream of loneliness at absolute midnight.
You also have withdrawn belief in the present reality
Of the future, which surely will surprise us,
…And hope is harder when it cannot come by prediction
Any more than by wishing. But stop dithering.
The young ask the old to hope. What will you tell them?
Tell them at least what you say to yourself.Because we have not made our lives to fit
Our places, the forests are ruined, the fields eroded,
The streams polluted, the mountains overturned. Hope
Then to belong to your place by your own knowledge
Of what it is that no other place is, and by
Your caring for it as you care for no other place, this
Place that you belong to though it is not yours,
For it was from the beginning and will be to the endBelong to your place by knowledge of the others who are
Your neighbors in it: the old man, sick and poor,
Who comes like a heron to fish in the creek,
And the fish in the creek, and the heron who manlike
Fishes for the fish in the creek, and the birds who sing
In the trees in the silence of the fisherman
And the heron, and the trees that keep the land
They stand upon as we too must keep it, or die.This knowledge cannot be taken from you by power
Or by wealth. It will stop your ears to the powerful
when they ask for your faith, and to the wealthy
when they ask for your land and your work.
Answer with knowledge of the others who are here
And how to be here with them. By this knowledge
Make the sense you need to make. By it stand
In the dignity of good sense, whatever may follow.
Speak to your fellow humans as your place
Has taught you to speak, as it has spoken to you.
Speak its dialect as your old compatriots spoke it
Before they had heard a radio. Speak
Publicly what cannot be taught or learned in public.Listen privately, silently to the voices that rise up
From the pages of books and from your own heart.
Be still and listen to the voices that belong
To the streambanks and the trees and the open fields.
There are songs and sayings that belong to this place,
By which it speaks for itself and no other.Found your hope, then, on the ground under your feet.
Your hope of Heaven, let it rest on the ground
Underfoot. Be it lighted by the light that falls
Freely upon it after the darkness of the nights
And the darkness of our ignorance and madness.
Let it be lighted also by the light that is within you,
Which is the light of imagination. By it you see
The likeness of people in other places to yourself
In your place. It lights invariably the need for care
Toward other people, other creatures, in other places
As you would ask them for care toward your place and you.No place at last is better than the world. The world
Is no better than its places. Its places at last
Are no better than their people while their people
Continue in them. When the people make
Dark the light within them, the world darkens.-Wendell Berry
Everything that ever happened to me
is just hanging—crushed
and sparkling—in the air,
waiting to happen to you.
Everything that ever happened to me
happened to somebody else first.
I would give you an example
but they are all invisible.
Or off gallivanting around the globe.
Not here when I need them
now that I need them
if I ever did which I doubt.
Being particular has its problems.
In particular there is a rift through everything.
There is a rift running the length of Iceland
and so a rift runs through every family
and between families a feud.
It’s called a saga. Rifts and sagas
fill the air, and beautiful old women
sing of them, so the air is filled with
music and the smell of berries and apples
and shouting when a gun goes off
and crying in closed rooms.
Faces, who needs them?
Eating the blood of oranges
I in my alcove could use one.
Abbas and ammas!
come out of your huts, travel
halfway around the world,
inspect my secret bank account of joy!
My face is a jar of honey
you can look through,
you can see everything
is muted, so terribly muted,
who could ever speak of it,
sealed and held up for all?
“Saga” Mary Ruefle
BLOW UP! EXPLODE
(write Bronwen)
AW, SICK!
(Parker is a teenager)
FEEL THE CURRENT
(Fish out of water)
CLIMB OUT OF YOUR HOLE!
(House)
DRAG AND DROP
(Paste + Mend)
BREAK THRU
(Old to new)
CONCEDED POINTS
(now i get it)
RE-TURNING AND MOVING ON
(backing away, turn to leave)
CHANGING FIELDS/CROSSING TERRITORIES
(get a new job – find a good job)
home, home on the range
(travel)
COAST’S CLEAR
(obstacles decrease)
COVER THE HOLE
(abstinence, patch it up)
DOGS, HALOS, ARCS
(Heta, Cam, spiritually connected)
NO STRAIGHTAWAY
(Beware the crooks)
Speakerphone on the street
everyone can hear,
the whole world is watching
traffic covers it up
distance is necessary to cover
(Familiarize)
ENOUGH TIME PAST
LET US BEGIN NOW!
(start a new project)
MELON ENWRAPPED IN WILLOW
(Fridah Kahlo, life jackets)
RIBBIT, HICCUP, SNIFFLE, DROP IT
(let it out, put it down)
MAKING RESCUE
(Remedies, find allies)
HERE’S TO RECIPROCITY. LAYING LOW. SHAPES ARE GOOD
(give and take, be gentle with yourself and others)
THAT MARK SHOULD GLOW IN THE DARK TOO
(give more light)
HEART-WRENCHING
Surrender
determination
Surrender
determination
(Open your heart, let out whats in there, hang on)
ENDEARMENT OF RESTRAINT
(be diligent + disciplined)
MORE SILENT STARING INTO YOUR ABYSS
(know what you see when its dark)