Renewed Vision: 2020

New Year's day 2020

And sunlight itself

Has awoken refreshed

Clarifying all that 

Presents itself 

The coffee grinds

The plate of crumbs

Each branch and twig 

All once again self-possessed

And each shadow endowed 

With renewed purpose

The mind comes with 

A calendar of its own and 

It relishes nothing more  

Than a clean slate

Gardening in December

As for excuses
I've just about run out
When it comes to the garden
That's why I'm out here
This morning even though
It's December 28th
A warm front came through
The northeast lifting us
Ten or fifteen degrees above
What used to be normal
Not that I'm keeping track
Of every last degree
But climate like
Politics emerges
From the mix of
Global regional
And local factors
So we each must do
Our part with the sliver
That lies in our control

To the Hellebore

Two days after
Christmas and
Already I see the first
Signs of spring
Let no one say it
Comes too soon

Brushing dead leaves
From last year's growth
On top of the Hellebore
Now dogeared
And threadbare
From the long hard fall
Tattered but green

There hugging the earth
Lies the season's first bloom
Silent in its dirt filled manger
The baby with its first blush
How remarkable it is that
Coeval with winter's advent
Comes rebirth

The Signal

To look directly into

The heart of the matter

Isn't that what an artist

Is supposed to do

That's what I learned

From Marissa and that's

What she learned from Allan

Art is a transitive power

That passes from one soul

To another as we learn how

To conduct a proper inquiry

Into the way Nature works

**********

One of the major reasons I'm looking forward to working with Marissa on the Apology podcast next year is because it's a chance for her to explain what she learned from Allan. I mean the podcast will be primarily devoted to telling the story of Allan and the Apology Line. But along with that there is a major subplot, namely Marissa's first hand account of what she learned from Allan. I've seen and learned some of this myself, derivatively that is, through what I have learned watching Marissa herself at work. It's the same sensibility and high sense of purpose applied to her own body of work.

The Signal by Marissa Bridge

The Great Latches of Being (for Anne Carson)

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Who will moderate the moderator

Who will make of life something more

Than a spectator sport

The great latches of being that are

Within reach of us all

Our addendum to seeing

The feeling of what is the what

We carry deepest of all