We marched! Judith met me at my house, and we met Judy, Matt, and Erin at the diner. It was wonderful.
I took a million pictures, as usual. I've tried to hint at the sign's names. The March for Women's Lives was a supremely cool protest. I've added the photo not by me of the entire pink crowd. :)
Mary Oliver was recommended to me by Swee and he was dead on. Long Life is her most recent book, apparently, published this year. Mostly prose. And he was right - my writing shadows hers, my emotions are half-cooked nuggets made of similar dough to her party cakes of bliss.
Here are a few important segments:
"All through our gliding journey, on this day as on so many others, a little song runs through my mind. I say a song because it passes musically, but it is really just words, a thought that is neither strange nor complex. In fact, how strange it would be not to think it --not to have such music inside one's head and body, on such an afternoon. What does it mean, say the words, that the earth is so beautiful? And what shall I do about it? What is the gift that I should bring to the world? What is the life that I should live?"
After a list of other experiences..."Once I saw the freshly built dam of two beaver, a half moon of mud and slender brances, the leaves still fresh upon them; then, as I watched, the water shoved with its silver gloves and it broke, it left the world forever. Hurry, hurry, open every door! says my heart."
"God's heavy footsteps through the bracken through the
bog through the dark wood his breath like a swollen river
his switch, lopping the flowers, forgive me, Lord, how I
still, sometimes,
crave understanding."
And here, this most familiar:
"Once, years ago, I emerged from the woods in the early morning at the end of a walk and--it was the most casual of moments--as I stepped from under the trees into the mild, pourin-down sunlight I experienced a sudden impact, a seizure of happiness. It was not the drowning sort of happiness, rather the floating sort. I made no struggle toward it; it was given. Time seemed to vanish. Urgency vanished. Any important difference between myself and all other things vanished. I knew that I belonged to the world, and felt comfortably my own containment in the totality. I did not feel that I understood any mystery, not at all; rather that I could be happy and feel blessed within the perplexity--..."
There's much more, of course, but for now I just want to post her words as a hint, and take a break from them to find a voice again. I cannot be anything but an appreciative mimic right now. Thank you so very much, Swee.
Dakota and I went on another long walk this evening, this time with my camera, which arrived back fixed from Canon today (yay!). I snapped many of the waterpoints along the way down to the pool and the creek. The creek was swollen with the April rain we've been getting, and the light was ashen, slicking the trees and plants.
I like a number of the pictures.
This one of red oaks loosening their little lacemes behind a sign has good color.
I uploaded this picture of roots and moss even though it is blurry, because every time I look at it my eyes try to focus as if I'm blurry, not the picture.
Dakota jaunts away from a watered fireplug.
A pipe piece became an eye to the sky and this tiny violetta got special treatment for Kristie Home's sake.
There were a lot of beautiful barks that looked like Japanese Stewartia, but I won't be sure until much deeper into the summer.
This huge, amazing burl is my favorite moment of the walk. It was huge, probably nearly two feet across, and snaked on either side by the furry snakes of poison ivy vine.
Dakota strolled on the little rock beach and even got his feet wet!
I liked the dual puddles that occur from tire traffic and the excellent lines in this picture of rail and mirror puddle.
Finally, a ghost tree, taken as it got a bit darker, but sans flash. It really seemed this blue in person, too. I gasped and had to delete some other pictures to get it.
One extra for John: Dakota Growfing
A local mob *chopped up* American contractors in Iraq today. For being Americans. They burned the people and hung their body parts from bridges.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/photo/world/G38422-2004Mar31.html
