So uniform in shape and function is the foxglove, yet the spots inside the corolla seem to be scattered at random.
To read spare, precise and accurate yet simple descriptions of objects is a special aspect of the pleasure of reading. Two instances, one in poetry and one in prose, have come my way recently.
One is the content of Barrett Bonden's blog www.bbworkswell.blogspot.com (already mentioned in this one on a number of occasions. No apology for doing so again).The other is to be found on Dave's www.vianegativa.us, where a series of 20 poems describe familiar tools (Odes to tools), so as to allow the subjects effortlessly and wittily to transcend themselves and lead naturally to new associations. An example from Ode to a socket wrench must suffice:
" ...Its accommodating nature
its chrome-plated steel,
its handling of torque.
It can make a complete revolution
From the smallest arc..."
Read the lot. They deserve to be.
To wait for a shower to end and walk out in the warm sunshine and smell in the damp, aromatic air, the oils and resins released by leaf and flower, is one of the pleasures of an uneven and unpredictable climate such as ours.
4 comments:
Ah, same foxgloves, same weather... and I, too, enjoy Dave's Odes to Tools!
Hey, thanks for the shout-out! I was just sitting here trying to decide if I have the momentum for any more tool odes or not, when I clicked on my Google Reader "Next" bookmarklet and saw this post. I'll take that as a sign from Whomever...
Mnany thanks for the link to Dave's poems and website. I will be revisiting looking for more tool odes.
Flattered by the reference, especially since I share Dave's toolophilia and browse DIY shelves in much the same way as I wander through bookshops. I am stirred by hard, shiny, purposeful devices which I know I would never use. They deserve poetry. And now I must break off and compose a piece - prose only, alas - about angle grinders.
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