burning panorama

Do you think we can put it out?
On monday night October 10th 2005, my rockingchair porch went up in smoke. The likely cause was dodgy wiring, but no use crying over spilt milk, as they say. Nobody hurt, no damage to house, nothing of exceptional value lost. The squirrels are a bit bemused, but feed at the remaining feeder, as do the birds. The residual smouldering is finished, and a crew of real neighbourly folk came on Friday and we got rid of fifteen tonnes or more of rubble...still considerable clearing up to do and stabilising the stonework... I have Lloyd Kahn's new 'Homework' book to inspire whatever may arise phoenix-like from the ancient foundations...

Aerial view 24 May 2004 - note hammock on porch and Ed in upper left corner spreading dung - click to zoom out

How To Be a Poet (to remind myself) by Wendell Berry

Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill-more of each
than you have-inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your work,
doubt their judgment.

Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.

---From the Writer's Almanac, Thursday October 13th
seems quite appropriate in parts...especially shunning electric wires