Nine Gates

I've been reading Nine Gates, Entering the Mind of Poetry by Jane Hirshfield. She has a strong interest in Japanese poetry and though this prose poem is not by a Japanese, it illustrates an idea, a specific dimension of Japanese poetry, she is writing about.

Here's the link to the Wiki article about Robert Haas.

Ghost Ranch

The Garmin map shows a road leading north through Ghost Ranch, but the map on the Info Board at The City Slicker's Cabin a short distance before The Ranch shows a locked gate. Skeptic that I am, I went to see. There are red cones blocking the road...not always a deterrent, but in this case I decided for demurral.

Along the highway...

Photos just don't capture it.

Rebecca

 so, yesterday I called Rebecca. She was at work but called me back later in the evening. We talked from about 7pm to 8:30 NM Time.

She told how she'd gotten divorced 4 years ago...it sounded due to his infidelity. She said she's Catholic -- and that wasn't going to change -- but she never used the word god.

Last October she underwent a 7-hour operation to have a herniated, calcified disk removed from her spine. The surgeon took a piece of her rib to replace the disk and it will take about a year for it to fully heal. In the meantime, she'll have to be careful of her back.

She expressed an attitude toward her life events that they offer learning opportunities, but described an event in which she raged, FULLY, against having had a child who had cancer, a husband who wasn't very satisfying in bed, she got laid off six months after moving to Tucson and has not made any friends there and doesn't enjoy the people...they're not as friendly as they are in the South where, she described walking around the block, people would invite you in for tea and banana bread.

She's been a runner for years and raised, over the last five, $20,000.00 for cancer research. She loves camping and is thinking of backpacking in Ireland. She REALLY wants to backback in Japan, but feels it'd be better to start someplace a little closer...like Ireland.

Her son is 14 and when I suggested she not push him away or encourage him to "separate" from her, she said I needn't worry, "he's a real Momma's boy." 

She talked about their love but said it wasn't the same as that of an adult male. She said she grows so tired of making all the decisions she is drawn to BDSM so she can be a submissive. She was aware of Desert Dominion, the BDSM group in Tucson, but, apparently, hasn't connected with them.

At the end of the conversation I asked her to write a "scene" and complete it by 8pm Sunday evening. She said she'd do it.

We both enjoyed the conversation and I'm inclined to think, in spite of the 22-year-difference in our ages, she's 45, she may be my next "client." 

Cerro Pedernal

Regional Haze - It covers the entire West. The sign outside the museum at the South Rim Grand Canyon blames it on particulates that've floated over from China. BASTARDS!!

Back in 2010 when I was in the Yukon, I was amazed at the clarity. You could see 30 miles as if it were two here in The States. Now that Phoebe's rebuilt, I'm thinking of going back.

Splitting Spike

There're some odd things in the woods. A trail from a campsite led past this one. As with sculpture, walking around it provided different views.

I've heard rumors of fierce winds, but fortunately, have never been in one.

Perhaps the split one had given insult?

Departing ABQ

Northbound to the National Forest west of Abiquiu.

The bill from St Mary's E.R. (heart attack March 8) arrived yesterday.

$10,000.00+ for an EKG, a consultation with the docs, some morphine & nitro and an offer for a femoral angiogram (guess they hadn't heard of transradial).

Medicare left me with $1,400.00; not much of an incentive to seek further treatment.

Looking forward to being away from the noise of the urban wasteland.

First-hand report: 30 cases of Covid on ventilators at Univ of NM Hospital, mostly from Farmington and the Navajo reservation.

What Do You Like About Art?

She posed the question at the end of her reply to a COMMENT I made on her blog.

I was so pleased with myself I had to post it here for posterity....my own, of course.





Although I admire fine draftsmanship, I am drawn more to non-representational work, including that found in performance pieces such as this.

Sha Sha Higby

(I have yet to find a video that conveys the artistry of Ms. Higby's work.)

My parents were artists (Dad a musician and conductor; Mom a painter) and from a young age I was encouraged to look, listen and notice subtleties. As my aesthetic developed I discovered art provided moments of ineffableness ... that "time" between when the eye perceives and the mind recognizes.

I prefer paintings and sculpture (to movies or videos) as they offer elements of texture not available in photographs. Also, I am slow to process and static works afford me the time to "absorb" them.

That said, I was an early fan of Robert Mapplethorpe's portraits and enjoy the work of Richard Avedon, Man Ray, and some of Sally Mann's work. (I have a proclivity toward the female figure.)

Both Kristen Mendenhall
https://newmexnomad.blogspot.com/2016/10/kristen-mendenhall-in-jemez-springs.html

and Michelle Cook have excellent compositional eyes and capture some astounding images though Ms. Cook rarely makes her work available to the public ... except for cat pictures on Facebook. Here are a couple of her videos from decades ago:

Smokin' White Folks I

Bad Eggs In Low Light

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michelle.cook.900




But, back to your question ... it is through art that I have gained insight into myriad ways of seeing. I lack imagination and through art have been able, as a voyeur, to enjoy a broader spectrum of experience.

I practiced Uechi-ryu (martial art) for 30 years (now fully integrated into consciousness) 

and had several experiences that gave first-hand appreciation of the power of chi / qi-gong.

My lifestyle as a nomad provides frequent encounters with the numinous (Jungian). For the past several years I've been practicing Margot Anand's techniques (mostly by myself) as a means of further expanding my ability to "notice."

But it is through works of art that I most commonly find unique sensibilities. It is in the arts - visual, performance, music - that I most frequently experience the thrill of discovery; an appreciation of new perspective and, with luck, a measure of sensuality.

I have spent my life seeking this experience and consider myself to have been lucky to find it in nearly all of my relationships (I'm a devout hetero) ... nearly all of whom are, or were, artists.