a blur through the room
faster than the speed of nap—
greyhound on the couch
FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF NAP
greyhound on the couch
faster than the speed of nap—
a blur through the room
—
This week it was Joey’s turn to be the subject of a NaisaiKu for the NaisaiKu challenge. Phoebe will get her shot next Friday.
[saveagrey]
In the dusky woods behind the lighthouse,
legends flourish and tangle, thick as weeds.
Liars, poets and pranksters all espouse
fair warnings they know you’ll never heed.
You’ll wish your sword weren’t now a plow
if you should dare proceed.
She warns you not to leave the path
or wander into dark and mossy woods.
In nightmares, ignored warnings bloom like flares;
branches claw the clouds; darkness settles round.
Wandering till trees repeat and even prayers
unheard are lost, and rising, make no sound.
Faint steps—wolf or bear? Turn, but nothing there.
Each steps’ crunch—bones rattling underground.
Each step deals a lonely solitaire
against your faith in being found.
She warns you not to leave the path
or wander into dark and mossy woods.
Desperate, you forsake the trail.
Without a map, you seek a fairer route.
When after darkest days, you find a vale,
a bright respite from fear and pain and doubt,
you discover, then, that only when you’ve strayed
you find your truest way.
She lies about leaving the path
to trap you in the dark and mossy woods.
—
This is a bop style poem written for Read Write Poem’s share the bop prompt. Participants were asked to donate two lines of poetry, and then pick someone else’s lines to serve as the refrain in their own poems. The refrain in this one was donated by Christine Swint who writes at balanced on the edge. I loved the mystery of the “dark and mossy woods” and wondered what was off the path.
I didn’t know where it would go (neither the path nor the poem), but it was fun using someone else’s idea as a jumping off point. As I wrote, I found the poem wanting to rhyme, which I don’t usually do, but this is all about experimenting so I followed that path and wound up using a sonnet-like rhyme.
And, for those who may be interested, Deb at Stoney Moss wrote a very cool poem with the lines that I donated. Her poem is called “A Vulture’s Love Is True.”
Update: Angie at The Space Between Words also used my lines. Her poem is “cathartes aura bop.” Go read it.
Please visit Postal Poetry. My poetry postcard “time to leave” is appearing there today.
Have a look around too. There’s lots of great stuff over there.
This morning, I noticed this crafty devil sitting on the neighbor’s fence. He seemed pretty relaxed what with his feathers all fluffed out against the cold, and standing on just one foot. I watched for a few moments and then ran for my camera and binoculars. Even though I was in the house, I’d swear he heard the camera because he put his foot down and looked right at me when I started shooting.
Not wanting to risk being late for work, I didn’t study him for long through the binoculars, trying instead to get pictures, which turned out a bit fuzzy, as the light was low and my lens isn’t fast, but I thought they might be passable enough to figure out an ID.
I’m pretty certain he is one of the 2 accipiter species of hawks that can be found around here this time of year, but the question is: which one?
The Sharp-shinned Hawk and the Cooper’s Hawk look nearly identical, though the Cooper’s is slightly larger. The Sharp-shinned are roughly jay-sized while the Cooper’s are closer to crow-sized. The hitch there is that the females are larger than the males so a large female Sharp-shinned and a small male Cooper’s could be the same size.
Fortunately, I had the neighbor’s squirrel feeder to compare him to. I’ve never seen a crow near it, but I do see lots of Blue Jays hanging around there, and this hawk looked a bit larger compared to it than the jays.
Project FeederWatch has a good page about distinguishing between these two as does the Great Backyard Bird Count.
The Project FeederWatch site had this useful bit of info:
If you can see the back of the hawk, and it is an adult, then the color of the nape is a reliable field mark. Cooper’s Hawks have a pale nape with a clear contrast to a dark cap. Juveniles of both species can show a pale nape, however.
The bird in question had the decency to turn his head and in these 2 shots. It does appear that the nape is paler than the cap, which suggests Cooper’s Hawk.
And, so, the question of the day: Cooper’s or Sharp-shinned? I’m leaning towards Cooper’s. Any of my birding friends out there want to weigh in? I’d love to know for sure.
If I’m way off, you can tell me that too.
The birds were especially active this weekend. They must feel spring approaching, and they are getting into the sing of things accordingly.
The American Goldfinches are starting to shift to their gold breeding plumage. I noticed one whose breast is already almost entirely gold. The rest are a splotchy goldish green color.
A third Carolina Chickadee came by and joined the two regulars. All three sang hard, trying to outchickadee the others.
A second male cardinal is also hanging around, and the two males spent a good chunk of Saturday morning chasing each other through the yard.
An American Robin made an appearance in the counts this week, and I saw a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers working the trees, though neither of them found the suet feeders.
The White-winged Doves are also increasing as it gets warmer.
For the second week in a row, I have not seen any Ruby-crowned Kinglets.
The Project FeederWatch Official Tally for Week15:
Why is it that the death of a dog we’ve never met can still break our hearts?
Today, Joey & Phoebe hand the blog over to another ex-racer who got lucky when he wasn’t fast enough.
Rest in peace, Vacume (aka Count Vacula).
[saveagrey]
piercing eyes scan all
he measures my weight in meat
jaguar on the couch
PIERCING EYES SCAN ALL
jaguar on the couch
he measures my weight in meat
piercing eyes scan all
—
piercing eyes scan all
he measures my weight in meat
jaguar on the couch
HE MEASURES MY WEIGHT IN MEAT
jaguar on the couch
he measures my weight in meat
piercing eyes scan all
—
piercing eyes scan all
he measures my weight in meat
jaguar on the couch
JAGUAR ON THE COUCH
jaguar on the couch
he measures my weight in meat
piercing eyes scan all
—
This is for The NaisaiKu Challenge. What is a NaisaiKu? The explanation is here, but mainly it’s a way to play with words and phrases using a 5-7-5 haiku as a starting point. Clever blogger that I am, I decided to combine this with some good old fashioned Friday Cat Blogging.
I attempted all 3 varieties of NaisaiKu, and like how they work together increasing the paranoia.
And, yes, I realize that the picture doesn’t match the words, but that’s only because Simon prefers to keep his eyes closed. But he is awake. Waiting.
a fugitive starlet
escapes her vise.
a moment’s graft;
we covet her vice.
an iron ecstasy,
we’re infected by virus
spread by paparazzi
who turn it to cancer.
—
This is for Read Write Poem. I used the read write word #10 prompt where you try to write a poem using the words provided in a list. It was an interesting exercise. Usually when I write I know what I want to write about. Well, sort of. Sometimes. Anyway, this time, I only knew what words I would use and this poem is what they wanted to do. The words I used were: fugitive, starlet, covet, graft, vise, ecstasy, iron, virus, paparazzi.
It is interesting that the words shaped themselves into something that deals with my continued surprise that with 2 wars and an economic meltdown we still seem to be more concerned with the doings and undoings of celebrities than anything else.
Season 5 of Lost has been light on literature. I haven’t seen any books featured in the episodes, and only one has been clearly referenced: The Little Prince by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I must admit, I miss the heady days of Seasons 2 and 3 with the hatch library and the book club meetings over in New Otherton. I’ll take what I can get, though, and I like what I got.
A children’s book, Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince is a wonderfully created fable about love and friendship, and how once a thing or a person has been loved, it becomes unique in all the world to the one who loved it.
The story begins in the Sahara Desert where the narrator just survived a plane crash (an incident based on a real event in Saint-Exupéry’s life) and is approached by a young prince from the small asteroid B612. The narrator befriends the prince who tells him of his home and his travels.
Asteroid B612 is a small place with 3 volcanoes and a single rose that the prince loves dearly. The rose plays games with him, however, and he decides to leave and see the rest of the universe. His travels take him to other asteroids where he meets various adults who don’t understand or value what is important about life.
Eventually he finds his way to Earth where he meets a fox who teaches him about love and the way love makes the beloved unique in all the world. The fox tells him the great secret:
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
The prince meets other roses, but because he does not love them, they are just roses. Eventually, coming to understand how much he loves his rose for its unique and special nature, he desires to return home.
His wish to go home is what has brought him back to the Sahara and in search of a snake who tells him that one bite will take him home. The prince tells the narrator not to be sad, that it must be this way because his body is too heavy to go back to his asteroid and so he must allow the snake to bite him so he can leave it behind and travel home.
The snake bites the prince and the next day, the narrator awakens to find that the prince has gone.
Despite the prince’s apparent death, the narrator takes comfort in knowing that the prince is still out there and that he has returned home to protect his rose.
It’s a beautiful story with lots of interesting ambiguity. I will definitely be checking out more of Saint-Exupéry’s work.
It is also the story of John Locke.
Ever since the end of Season 4, we have known that Locke must die in order to save the island. He probably has to die to return, and while we don’t yet know the exact mechanism for this, I think it’s clear from the title of the episode “The Little Prince,” John Locke will be coming back to life, and that he had to die to return home to the island he has come to love.
In case the reference in the title isn’t enough, the name Canton Rainier on of the side of Ben’s van, which first appears in this episode, can be rearranged to spell reincarnation.
John Locke, the little prince of the island, is coming back to life.
The reincarnation angle gets extra play with this week’s episode title “316.” I suspect it refers to the coordinates to get back to the island, but it is also a reference to John (not John Locke, though) 3:16:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
The Little Prince, then, is meant to hint at the reasons for Locke’s death, and while we don’t know the reason for its necessity, I believe it is another clear hint that Locke will be coming back in some form. I believe the island grants everlasting life. Just look at Richard Alpert. The question, then, is to whom is this gift granted. It doesn’t seem to have been granted to Ben Linus. And why does it seem to have been given to Christian Shepard?
All this everlasting life business ties into the theories I proposed last year after reading Adolfo Bioy Casares’ The Invention of Morel, in which I argued that the island projects the dead. This is in fact why Alpert does not age and I suspect Locke will not age anymore once he returns to the island.
There was another interesting reference to The Little Prince in the name of the French crew’s boat: Besixdouze. That’s French for B612, the name of the little prince’s asteroid.
On a lighter note, Annie from The Transplantable Rose sent me a link to this clip some former Austinite friends of hers made when they traveled to Oahu. They visit some of the Lost sets and even reenact a few scenes:
Be sure to check out the rest of my Lost book posts at The Lost Book Club.
Please visit a handful of stones. One of my small stones is appearing there today, which is a very cool thing, I think.
What is a small stone? Editor Fiona Robyn writes:
A small stone is a very short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment.
Look around while you’re there. There’s great stuff to be found.