| TIC
Reading August 4, 2007
“Dreamcasting: A Response
to Forest Walk"
To see the artwork featured at this event,
please visit Mary
Ellen Long online.
“Detritus: Two Books:” poem
Sandy Beach
I
The ritual laying out of the work
is integral to the
experience
according to the maker
the handmade washi paper
Absorbs and records
the memory of summer
as it lies in situ on the forest floor
Not only aspen and oak
leaves are leavened into
this book (an offering)
but others I do not know
This artifact is remade each time
it moves to a new location
layering
page
then leaves
page
leaves twigs moss
leave room for improvisation
the work is no more
static than nature itself
ever changing
with glacial stealth
or flash flood suddenness
the planet is alive
and breathing
an entity upon which we
must tread lightly
II
Strata of Ponderosa pine
needles inside
Pages are the color of leaves
after a hard winter
flat mulch–tinged gray
My foot has trod over layers
of leaf mulch much like this
I did not think “book!”
did not think “art!”
instead fretted
“centipede spider snake”
Or did not notice at all
as my eyes were raised to sky
Look out a bird
I did not go to the forest
to commune with nature
but rather to avoid
human company
I confess an unease
with forest habitat
cell memory
harkening back to
a time when we
were prey
not marauders
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