Comments on: Anti-spring http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/anti-spring/ How can we live without the unknown before us? —Rene Char Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:48:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Via Negativa » Blog Archive » IRFD 2: Halls of the mountain millipede http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/anti-spring/#comment-667 Via Negativa » Blog Archive » IRFD 2: Halls of the mountain millipede Sun, 02 Sep 2007 19:04:24 +0000 http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/27/anti-spring/#comment-667 [...] For my second rock of the day, I decided to try the small powerline right-of-way a couple hundred yards from my house. The powerline is almost a hundred years old, and the right-of-way has turned into a scrub barrens habitat dominated by lowbush blueberries and huckleberries, scrub oak, mountain laurel, sweetfern, and bracken. Two springs ago my brother collected a rare species of blister beetle there, and the increasingly scarce yellow-breasted chat has nested there in the past, so I was curious to see what a casual look under a rock would turn up. [...] [...] For my second rock of the day, I decided to try the small powerline right-of-way a couple hundred yards from my house. The powerline is almost a hundred years old, and the right-of-way has turned into a scrub barrens habitat dominated by lowbush blueberries and huckleberries, scrub oak, mountain laurel, sweetfern, and bracken. Two springs ago my brother collected a rare species of blister beetle there, and the increasingly scarce yellow-breasted chat has nested there in the past, so I was curious to see what a casual look under a rock would turn up. [...]

]]> By: Via Negativa » Blog Archive » Stalking the horned fungus beast http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/anti-spring/#comment-666 Via Negativa » Blog Archive » Stalking the horned fungus beast Wed, 03 May 2006 18:56:20 +0000 http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/27/anti-spring/#comment-666 [...] Last Thursday, after I re-found the blister beetles for my brother Steve, we walked back through the flowering oak woods. It was a sunny day, and the woods were filled with butterflies. [...] [...] Last Thursday, after I re-found the blister beetles for my brother Steve, we walked back through the flowering oak woods. It was a sunny day, and the woods were filled with butterflies. [...]

]]> By: Bill http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/anti-spring/#comment-665 Bill Sat, 29 Apr 2006 02:11:57 +0000 http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/27/anti-spring/#comment-665 Thanks for the WCW vector. I certainly didn't mean to quibble! Found this among other interesting and enjoyable poems, thanks again, "Paterson lies in the valley under Passaic Falls its spent waters forming the outline of his back. He lies on the right side, head near the thunder of the waters filling his dreams! Eternally asleep, his dreams walk about the city where he presists incognito. Butterfilies settle on his stone ear. Immortal he neither moves nor rouses and is seldom seen, though he breathes and the subtleties of his machinations drawing from their substance from the noise of the pouring river animate a thousand automatons." Thanks for the WCW vector. I certainly didn’t mean to quibble!

Found this among other interesting and enjoyable poems, thanks again,

“Paterson lies in the valley under Passaic Falls
its spent waters forming the outline of his back. He
lies on the right side, head near the thunder
of the waters filling his dreams! Eternally asleep,
his dreams walk about the city where he presists
incognito. Butterfilies settle on his stone ear.
Immortal he neither moves nor rouses and is seldom
seen, though he breathes and the subtleties of his
machinations
drawing from their substance from the noise of the pouring
river
animate a thousand automatons.”

]]> By: Dave http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/anti-spring/#comment-664 Dave Fri, 28 Apr 2006 17:15:37 +0000 http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/27/anti-spring/#comment-664 Bill - Thanks for that great story. Going to visit the actual falls would've pleased Williams very much, I'm sure. "No ideas but in things" sounds almost as if it could be your own mantra, too. I didn't mean to imply that resurrection and upwelling are themes in <em>Paterson</em>, though they are present. But remember that Williams also wrote <em>Kora in Hell</em> and <em>Spring and All</em>, not to mention <em>Asp[hoel, That Greeny Flower</em>. So I do think of his as very much a springtime poet, even into his old age. Anne - Beleive it or not, I was only sub-consciously aware of the humor in the my placement of that photo at the end. It was a wash day; it made a good picture; it seemed to fit. I'm glad you like my flower photos. I think I'll have to start a Flickr set soon for all the photos I can't fit in here. We've had frosts, but no snow recently. Bill – Thanks for that great story. Going to visit the actual falls would’ve pleased Williams very much, I’m sure. “No ideas but in things” sounds almost as if it could be your own mantra, too.

I didn’t mean to imply that resurrection and upwelling are themes in Paterson, though they are present. But remember that Williams also wrote Kora in Hell and Spring and All, not to mention Asp[hoel, That Greeny Flower. So I do think of his as very much a springtime poet, even into his old age.

Anne – Beleive it or not, I was only sub-consciously aware of the humor in the my placement of that photo at the end. It was a wash day; it made a good picture; it seemed to fit.

I’m glad you like my flower photos. I think I’ll have to start a Flickr set soon for all the photos I can’t fit in here.

We’ve had frosts, but no snow recently.

]]> By: Via Negativa » Blog Archive » The way things are http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/anti-spring/#comment-663 Via Negativa » Blog Archive » The way things are Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:29:06 +0000 http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/27/anti-spring/#comment-663 [...] “I have a similar train of thought at peak of each season,” says the sylph, “a desire to stop the world for a geologic minute, a general sadness that it will pass.” Me too. [...] [...] “I have a similar train of thought at peak of each season,” says the sylph, “a desire to stop the world for a geologic minute, a general sadness that it will pass.” Me too. [...]

]]> By: Anne http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/anti-spring/#comment-662 Anne Fri, 28 Apr 2006 15:47:23 +0000 http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/27/anti-spring/#comment-662 haha! at first glance, the pants seem to have been abandoned rather speedily as if someone dove from them! love the flower images, spring flowers always look so succulent and full of water - especially those in the east... we have rain/snow this morning. it saturates all of the colors and, as long as the camera doesn't mind, makes for some interesting images! haha! at first glance, the pants seem to have been abandoned rather speedily as if someone dove from them! love the flower images, spring flowers always look so succulent and full of water – especially those in the east…
we have rain/snow this morning. it saturates all of the colors and, as long as the camera doesn’t mind, makes for some interesting images!

]]> By: Bill http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/anti-spring/#comment-661 Bill Fri, 28 Apr 2006 15:37:42 +0000 http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/27/anti-spring/#comment-661 The pants are TOO much! Did you leap head first into the falls leaving you pants in mid-air? I made a trip to Paterson once just to look at the falls. I am not a coherent reader but I was aware of their meaning in WCW's work and that they could mean something for me as a young person wondering what I would become. How startling to think back to that, how typical it was of me, to have to actually go there and see the actual thing. I was a young person loosing their way in NYC going to have a look to see how it would all come out in the wash. The very obvious thing about the falls was their suburban context, their open, feral danger running like a deep crack through the midst of a tightly packed, small-yarded bedroom community. Resurrection and upwelling, hmm... I should go check the poem out again. I just remember the falls as being something, not an abstraction, not metaphor, but sound, movement, weight, touch, water, not a nothingness but a great, real, tangible, ongoing something. Thanks for reminding me! The pants are TOO much!
Did you leap head first into the falls leaving you pants in mid-air?
I made a trip to Paterson once just to look at the falls.
I am not a coherent reader but I was aware of their meaning in WCW’s work and that they could mean something for me as a young person wondering what I would become. How startling to think back to that, how typical it was of me, to have to actually go there and see the actual thing. I was a young person loosing their way in NYC going to have a look to see how it would all come out in the wash. The very obvious thing about the falls was their suburban context, their open, feral danger running like a deep crack through the midst of a tightly packed, small-yarded bedroom community.

Resurrection and upwelling, hmm… I should go check the poem out again. I just remember the falls as being something, not an abstraction, not metaphor, but sound, movement, weight, touch, water, not a nothingness but a great, real, tangible, ongoing something. Thanks for reminding me!

]]> By: Dave http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/anti-spring/#comment-660 Dave Fri, 28 Apr 2006 14:37:53 +0000 http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/27/anti-spring/#comment-660 Kat - Interesting suggestion. You're right - with global climate change accelerating, we should definitely "expect the unexpected." We've already seen a lot of changes here of the sort that effect insects, such as warmer winters and more frequent forest disturbances. Thanks for the comment, and welcome! Kat – Interesting suggestion. You’re right – with global climate change accelerating, we should definitely “expect the unexpected.” We’ve already seen a lot of changes here of the sort that effect insects, such as warmer winters and more frequent forest disturbances.

Thanks for the comment, and welcome!

]]> By: Kat http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/anti-spring/#comment-659 Kat Fri, 28 Apr 2006 01:57:25 +0000 http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/27/anti-spring/#comment-659 We have blister beetles that come in Arizona to eat our nightshades (the tomatillo was a particular favorite last year). Usually there is one species that shows up in a month or so, a greenish one that looks much like that pictured above, and then a black one shows up at the end of the season, in late August. This year the black ones are already making their show, though the greens have yet to arrive. Perhaps your beetles are changing their habits as well, and that's why they've not been seen before. We have blister beetles that come in Arizona to eat our nightshades (the tomatillo was a particular favorite last year). Usually there is one species that shows up in a month or so, a greenish one that looks much like that pictured above, and then a black one shows up at the end of the season, in late August. This year the black ones are already making their show, though the greens have yet to arrive. Perhaps your beetles are changing their habits as well, and that’s why they’ve not been seen before.

]]> By: Dave http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/anti-spring/#comment-658 Dave Fri, 28 Apr 2006 01:11:39 +0000 http://www.vianegativa.us/2006/04/27/anti-spring/#comment-658 Sylph - That sadness: yes. The passing of time is a mystery I never get tired of puzzling over. Pica - I'm glad to hear you say this post worked for you, because frankly, I wrote it so quickly I had no time for rewrites and edits, and right now I'm too tired to tell whether it's any good or not. The pictures and the photos pretty much came together. A theme emerged as I went through my picture files, and then I took one more picture to complete the series (jeans on line). Thank you for not writing "<em>from</em> whence"! I get so tired of hearing that redundancy. Sylph – That sadness: yes. The passing of time is a mystery I never get tired of puzzling over.

Pica – I’m glad to hear you say this post worked for you, because frankly, I wrote it so quickly I had no time for rewrites and edits, and right now I’m too tired to tell whether it’s any good or not.

The pictures and the photos pretty much came together. A theme emerged as I went through my picture files, and then I took one more picture to complete the series (jeans on line).

Thank you for not writing “from whence”! I get so tired of hearing that redundancy.

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