"...That September pairing of purple and gold is lived reciprocity; its wisdom is that the beauty of one is illuminated by the radiance of the other. Science and art, matter and spirit, indigenous knowledge and Western science— can they be goldenrod and asters for each other? When I am in their presence, their beauty asks me for reciprocity, to be the complementary color, to make something beautiful in response…”
Excerpt from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s article “Goldenrod and Asters: My Life With Plants”
“…And I feel so much of what we’re burdened by is bad stories, both people who have amnesia who don’t remember that the present was constructed by certain forces to serve certain elements and can be deconstructed in that things could be very different, that they have been very different, that things are always changing and that we have agency in that change…”
“…If you study history deeply, you realize that, to quote Patti Smith, “people have the power,” that popular power, civil society, has been tremendously powerful and has changed the world again and again and again. That we’re not powerless…”
Rebecca Solnit
Summer/Fall 2022
New England Asters and Goldenrod meadows
New England Asters and Goldenrod meadows
For Reciprocity
an Overestimation
8-14-2022
an Overestimation
8-14-2022
An overestimation of authenticity
liquid engage language
as bright as breath can be
an overestimation of truth
adjusting my glasses
there but for the grace
An overestimation of gravity
The road that is paved devoured her heart
an intimate passage
of thin shoulders and broad hips
towards a crescent slice of moon
twilight w/o fireflies cause fireflies need a yard to dance in
I make footfalls wearing down a way over the earth that others can follow
I see my lungs, sealing a certain fate
Fictional washing the practical past
mining a landscape of biology
steady streams unending w/o reservation
Bearing witness to the erasure around me…
Diane Ludin 8-14-2022
The "Flower Duet"
The "Flower Duet"
"...is a duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano in the first act of Léo Delibes' opera Lakmé, premiered in Paris in 1883. It is sung by the characters Lakmé, daughter of a Brahmin priest, and her servant Mallika, as they go to gather flowers by a river..." wikipedia 8-14-2022
Literal English translation:
Come, Mallika, the flowering lianas
already cast their shadow
on the sacred stream
which flows, calm and dark,
awakened by the song of rowdy
birds.
Oh! Mistress, this is the hour
when I see you smile,
the blessed hour when I can read
in the always closed heart
of Lakmé!
Thick dome of jasmine
Under the dense canopy where the white jasmine,
Blends with the rose,
That blends with the rose,
Bank in bloom, fresh morning,
On the flowering bank, laughing in the morning,
Call us together.
Come, let us drift down together.
Ah! Let's glide along
Let us gently glide along; For its enchanting flow
The fleeing current;
Let us follow the fleeing current;
On the rippling surface,
On the rippling surface,
With a nonchalant hand,
With a nonchalant hand,
Let's go to the shore,
Come, let's go to the shore
Where the bird sings,
Where the spring sleeps.
the bird, the bird sings.
And the bird, the bird sings.
Thick dome, white jasmine,
Under the dense canopy, Under the white jasmine,
Call us together!
Ah! Let's drift down together!
But, an eerie feeling of distress overcomes me.
When my father goes into their accursed city
I tremble, I tremble with fright!
In order for him to be protected by Ganesh
To the pond where joyfully play
The snow-winged swans
Let us pick blue lotuses.
Yes, near the swans with wings of snow,
And pick blue lotuses.
Thick dome of jasmine
Under the dense canopy where the white jasmine,
Blends with the rose,
That blends with the rose,
Bank in bloom, fresh morning,
On the flowering bank, laughing in the morning,
Call us together.
Come, let us drift down together.
Ah! Let's glide along
Let us gently glide along; For its enchanting flow
The fleeing current;
Let us follow the fleeing current;
On the rippling surface,
With a nonchalant hand,
With a nonchalant hand,
Let's go to the shore,
Come, let's go to the shore
Where the bird sings,
Where the spring sleeps.
the bird, the bird sings.
And the bird, the bird sings.
Thick dome, white jasmine,
Under the dense canopy, Under the white jasmine,
Together call us!
Ah! Let's drift down together!
wikipedia extracted 8-14-2022
For Reciprocity an Underestimation 9-17-2022
They wore bright firelight
flutter sink, sultry sugar crust
eating white sea salt
in the hand of an almighty memory
Asters and Goldenrod
egregious
forever
unforlorn and free
blooming big
unexpected
underestimated countenance
by most away and infinite around
to become seahorse riders
Diane Ludin 9-17-2022 prompt of 8s from Anastacia-Renee of Women Writers in Bloom Salon