such a fine day
the bees are abuzz
in the fresh chips
of the maple trees

the apiaries that sell
honey according to the
local flowers
begin their seasons
with basswood then
clover then star thistle
then buckwheat....
as i recall.

perhaps the first honey
has a hint of maple
because
as yet
the basswood flowers
are nowhere to been seen

moss time

forest green
48 x 66 in. private collection Toronto

observations on listening

when i wrote "depth perception",
(the piece on Wednesday)
i got up in the middle of the night
with the
the words forming
in my head.

in the voice of the biosphere
there's nothing to stop
a few words from arriving
"out of the blue"
after all, we are
natural creatures
with-in
the interconnectedness
of all things-
if we choose to remember

reminder:
participate in evolution
by being the change
of your longing

I did know that Uncle Jack
was in the darkness of a coma.
he had been in the darkness of total blindness
for the last few years
i had been paying attention
to listening

so the ideas
of wednesday
may not have been
entirely mine.

i didn't hear that Uncle Jack had died until friday
he was well into his eighties

in the imagined images
of blindness,
have the brain's pathways
of sight been
transformed to
new purpose?

besides telling us what they see
by touch, by smell... by recollection
could we not learn to see
what they are projecting
on the inner screen of their
mind's eye
in their visual imagination


what kind of
communication is possible
through imaging imagination?

what is the difference
between imagination and
bringing forth something
fully formed
with-out having given it a name?
is that where intuition
resides?
in the listening for a voice
that is not our own,
in the finding the note that arrived
in a bottle on the shore?

are these gifts?
a direct exchange of knowledge?

note to scientists:
look for the difference in the brain activity
between sighted and blind people
when you ask them to visualize something.

when we think of Beethoven imagining music
with such clarity, after he become deaf that he
was able to write the scores, how would that
rare activity appear
on the brain wave monitoring screen?

painting with fire and space and

the rythm
of the fire
with
wooden flute
accompaniment
in the late afternoon

Jack Letheren

Uncle Jack died
on wednesday
in "depth perception"
he fought for liberty
there on the coast
of Normandy
he lost an eye
and returned to
edit the words
of journals-
when word
held more sway
in democracy.
What part of the
perception of sight
learns to adapt
to compensate
for seeing
with one eye?

time travel

but wait,
scrolling in either direction
through the changes of
the seasons
and the paintings
and the words,
and
you are walking
through
the woods
on the
stepping stones
of time

cutting trees
out of the canopy
to allow others
to form it
anew

time
on another scale


our lifetime
but a day

maple springtime 80 x 66 in. (recently found a good home in Toronto)



the photogragh (below)
has been taken through
a uv polarizing lens
which is to say
the reflection in the water
had a lot more glare

depth perception

stop
look
listen to your heart beat
take a deep breath
stop
take a step in your bare feet
feel the earth
stop
listen to the voice of
eternity
stop
yes
it is about you
stop
now

photo

sunset tonight
of a few years ago-
if you know what i mean
this linear time thing is a
a bit relentless
don't you think

melttime

of course i forgot the daylight savings
so when my friend's noisy car arrived
i was listening to Enright on cbc
and had yet to make coffee
he was coming to do some recreational
firewood
the moss covered limestone
is pushing through the
fleeting blanket of snow
there was no mid-winter melt
so there's no resistant crust
luckily we started with a coffee break
because from the kitchen table i caught sight of
some movement up the hill
a doe and a yearling were making their way
to drink from the melt-water springs

two damaged maples
felled, split and stacked without mishap
began the season with half a day

invite

luckily the snow has been
too deep to start the fire wood
and the weather to fine for
grinding off gel-coat