Well, it's about time now to start the new year! It's been
cold and gray and miserable for days but today . . . today there is sun! It's
still very cold and very windy but the sky is a hard winter blue, empty as a
slate, no cloud scribbling across that vastness, lifting higher and higher. My
maple has finally lost all its leaves, almost overnight, it's bare and thin
against the wind. The new green leaves the sawtooth oak put out are now rags of
brown fluttering from twigs. Now that the trees with leaves has let them all
go, there is so much light, when there is sunlight that new things are visible,
curved gray trunk of the sycamore, its branches bare now as well, are dark on
the side away from the sun where they are still wet. They look like a charcoal
drawing against the cold watercolor sky. The ground is sodden, wet and rumpled
under foot, though I try to avoid the biggest puddles as my shoes are not made
for water. The wind is drying everything up though as is the sun. It's supposed
to be warmer this afternoon, but I'm not sure the forecasters and I have the
same idea of what is warm, not in the least.
I am amazed at how much better I feel when there is a
little sun. The dark gloomy skies leaking slow rain seemed to be pressing down
on my spirits, and this morning's sun suddenly arriving has buoyed them up the
way a calm sea lifts a sailing ship on its long quiet swells! The light, an
abundance of it here nearly at noon, seems to be content to paint everything
with the same bright brush, huge swathes of color, green and gold with shifting
patterns of shadow, the almost white-gray of the road, the warm brown of the
roofs, the dark feathery green of the pines, all highlighted by sunlight! Nice
to be able to see so much!
I wanted a poem about light this morning, about the birds
flying, about the bare trees . . . After all this time I wanted something that
speaks not only to the day but to how I find myself this morning, how this day
means . . .
Unknown Age
For all the features it hoards and displays
age seems to be without substance at any time
whether morning or evening it is a moment of air
held between the hands like a stunned bird
while I stand remembering light in the trees
of another century on a continent long submerged
with no way of telling whether the leaves at that time
felt memory as they were touching the day
and no knowledge of what happened to the reflections
on the pond's surface that never were seen again
the bird still while the light goes on flying
W. S. Merwin
The light goes on flying this morning, and I don't know how the leaves that hung on so long this year touched the face of the day, and then vanished in the wind, but they did, they went flying as the birds do, as the light does from this huge blue deep of air. For all the features of age, perhaps the one I like best is having more time, not being so busy that I don't notice the world. I ask my students what they observe, had them draw one card about one thing they observed closely, and it was hard for them. They really are so busy that they rush past nearly everything but the next class, the next assignment. They don't seem to have time to just sit and think about things, to talk quietly to other students, several say they love to draw and make "art" but they don't have time. So, now they do, and it's taking them a while to realize that this class is about that time. Not about techniques, not about art history, not about instruction, this is a class for having time to play, to experiment, to make choices. I see it on their faces that they don't really believe it, not yet, but they will. Some are getting the hang of it, in a couple of weeks their cards will get better, they will let go of the idea of right and wrong and just do. Sometimes I think I have not got there yet myself! In one of my student's paper about What is Art? She said that you should not be afraid of doing something wrong but more afraid of staying the same. Wow! That really hit home with me! Most people are about doing what they know, what they know they can do well, and I include myself in that group, but what if we were all afraid of staying the same? What if we were more afraid of NOT changing than we are of changing? It would certainly be a different world. That's why I like teaching these classes, I learn so much and they keep me reminding me of things I know already and making me see things in new ways. So today, I am working on not staying the same, on not being afraid of trying something I will not be good at. We'll see how it goes . . . I need a lot of practice!
For all the features it hoards and displays
age seems to be without substance at any time
whether morning or evening it is a moment of air
held between the hands like a stunned bird
while I stand remembering light in the trees
of another century on a continent long submerged
with no way of telling whether the leaves at that time
felt memory as they were touching the day
and no knowledge of what happened to the reflections
on the pond's surface that never were seen again
the bird still while the light goes on flying
W. S. Merwin
The light goes on flying this morning, and I don't know how the leaves that hung on so long this year touched the face of the day, and then vanished in the wind, but they did, they went flying as the birds do, as the light does from this huge blue deep of air. For all the features of age, perhaps the one I like best is having more time, not being so busy that I don't notice the world. I ask my students what they observe, had them draw one card about one thing they observed closely, and it was hard for them. They really are so busy that they rush past nearly everything but the next class, the next assignment. They don't seem to have time to just sit and think about things, to talk quietly to other students, several say they love to draw and make "art" but they don't have time. So, now they do, and it's taking them a while to realize that this class is about that time. Not about techniques, not about art history, not about instruction, this is a class for having time to play, to experiment, to make choices. I see it on their faces that they don't really believe it, not yet, but they will. Some are getting the hang of it, in a couple of weeks their cards will get better, they will let go of the idea of right and wrong and just do. Sometimes I think I have not got there yet myself! In one of my student's paper about What is Art? She said that you should not be afraid of doing something wrong but more afraid of staying the same. Wow! That really hit home with me! Most people are about doing what they know, what they know they can do well, and I include myself in that group, but what if we were all afraid of staying the same? What if we were more afraid of NOT changing than we are of changing? It would certainly be a different world. That's why I like teaching these classes, I learn so much and they keep me reminding me of things I know already and making me see things in new ways. So today, I am working on not staying the same, on not being afraid of trying something I will not be good at. We'll see how it goes . . . I need a lot of practice!
The light is getting in everything today! Bravo light!
Paint the world joyful!
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