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?