Curly reed

"...No surface, skimming. And blank in life, too,
or instead the first layer, the place you remember..."

From "The Forest" by Susan Stewart

Precipitous

"... Stillness and more stillness and the light locked
deep inside—both pure and impure being. ..."

From "Wight" by Stanley Plumly

Blown grasses

"...At this moment there are dead stars seeing
Themselves as marsh and forest in the eyes
Of muskrat and shrew..."

From "The Origin of Order" by Pattiann Rogers

American Mart

"...O my America, my long-lost land lady of
The hardening ground, the house neither ancient nor in
Good repair..."

From "Powers of Thirteen: 29 [An Old Song]" by John Hollander

Pump bones

"...At this hour, what is dead is restless
and what is living is burning. ..."

From "This Hour and What Is Dead" by Li-Young Lee

Daucus carota

"Pieces—stems, ghosts—of afternoon
falling all over themselves..."

From "Romantic Note" by Charles North

*****

Look closely and you'll see what stopped me at the edge of the field.

Spotted-ness

"...Having said dappled, it was time to think
exactly what such spottedness might mean. ..."

From "The Other Side" by Rachel Hadas

Floating

"...bed of swollen creeks and theories and coils
bed of eyes and leaky pens..."

From "Floating Trees" by C. D. Wright

*****

Heading out to visit one of my brothers and his family for a few days -- stay well and be happy, all y'all! Posts resume sometime around next Wednesday.

Inks Lake slough

"...the same clearing where, in the old story,
A holy man discovered Vishnu sleeping,
Wrapped in his maya, dreaming by a pool..."

From "Walking to Sleep" by Richard Wilbur

Flavor lasts

"Is everything a field of energy caused
by human projection? ..."

From "I Am But A Traveler in This Land & Know Little of Its Ways" by Dean Young

Spirit dwells

"Bashō says the body is composed of one hundred bones and nine
openings.
Within which flimsy structure the spirit dwells. ..."

From "Midsummer" by Nicholas Christopher

Dry field

"...Mm-mm, I sure do have the blues today:
Baby, will you give me some sugar?"

From "Sugar Cane" by Alfred Corn

*****

Just a lil' bit of a blue Monday, wishing it was Sunday...

Things to do

This was one place I saw when we pulled off the road leading back to Fort Davis from McDonald Observatory. The bird-song-spangled quiet stretched so far it exceeded the edges of my horizon. I noticed a slight movement -- cows and calves, far off, grazing.

*****

As I'm pulled back into my work, my home life, the things I do here, I make these notes to myself to remember things to do will include more time spent in places like this.

Thanks to all y'all for tagging along.

Lucky penny

"...knowledge increases unreality, that
Mirror on mirror mirrored is all the show. ..."

From "The Statues" by William Butler Yeats

*****

After some fine whole wheat pancakes at Bread and Breakfast in Alpine, I saw a lucky penny.

Alpine Texas, Sunday Morning

"Listen to this silence

It is an anchored silence..."

From "Three Songs of Solitude" by Eunice Odio
Translated by Keith Ekiss

World enough...

...but not time enough.

I got back late Tuesday, took my friend to the airport Wednesday. Half-way back to Austin, I felt like turning the car around.

If you click on the pic, and then imagine it surrounding you in all directions, the air smelling like ponderosa pine and wet creosote, no sound except bird-song and the wind in the grass and trees, you'll know why.

I didn't catch many pics while traveling -- too much chat with an old friend, too much rain (fortunately for all the folks living in Fort Davis, Alpine, and Marfa), too little time.

But I did catch a few. Wish I were there, again.