THE MOON TONIGHT
--The mind is trying to discover and to find its place within the land,
to discover a way to dispel its own sense of estrangement.
--Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams
--Something else that is the case, one species--
the one that uses fire—is remarkably
like fire: insatiable…”
--Robert Bringhurst, The Ridge
When Horizon fully opens,
the mind born out of itself,
calls for cosmic prayers
from story tellers in animal voices
from uncounted spirit forces
telling how in burn and breath
it was for them, I’d like to know,
the place in book or landscape--
and what it was and why,
and I’d like them, plant or animal,
to tell what happened in the reading,
in the living, in the rooting of horizon
and the reading and living outside
of the book and the soil. I’d like them
to tell, too, of their preparations
for the receiving of Barry Lopez’ work.
What prepared the way for this opening,
this epiphany, or blossoming.
What led up to the breaking open,
in other words than words.
What stone witnessed?
This Barry Lopez singing.
This Blessingway. For there were several
light landings, places where the gods
might have set down had they been in the area.
And of many other things, several
readings of the horizon,
multiple ways of experience
separating circles of the line.
His boundary, his limit has been
delineated many times
before becoming life-work.
This singing and this falling.
The wonders of this sewing.
The weavings in the fabric. And now,
each new place within any
observer’s position or range
of perception. His, a place
preparing one for what’s next,
while waiting. Mine is the hand
of one writing with a notebook
held on the steering wheel
while driving in the dark,
one passing through, who overheard
a man talking about a stand of trees.
Slowing the work, following river’s
demand of slowing the water. This.
Life and work intersecting
land and sky completely apprenticed.
Open to where conversation is surprise.
The listening. The notebook.
The Blessingway in notebooks.
When the moon is near the horizon
the scattering of blues, greens and purples.
Light with a longer distance to travel.
It hasn’t been said yet. This trail work.
Jim Bodeen
31 October 2023–26 November 2023
Sisters, Oregon, Finn Rock/McKenzie River, Oregon,
Yakima, Washington
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