this photograph! - my mind shrieks in disbelief, that this in particular is possible, but also that anything in particular is possible! eyes, face, expression, mandible, body, staging between such ephemeral yet seemingly static forces as blades of grass or weeds or thistle! talk about existential! and yet, talk about being!
what might i matter in a world where this is possible? i feel my body, in the presence of the reality of the praying matis, this praying mantis, fading.
remarkable. (and that is not to say anything of scale. scale, i think, dissolves as well as humanity.)
erin: i felt lucky to encounter this mantis in the twilight, a reminder of how very little i know of the life around me. as i was taking photos, he turned his head to follow me with such awareness and, it seemed, intelligence -- but beyond what i understand as life, he seemed more an intricate and fabulous bit of clockwork ... which means, of course, that i understand life incorrectly ... what is the world from this creature's perspective? is there any consciousness that would make perspective? i suspect the questions themselves are foolishly off-track ... can we ever know, or only stare into a mirror that does not reflect??
Wondrous photos. I killed a giant grasshopper yesterday and I cried. He was eating my Comfrey and my Hibiscus leaves. I can still hear the ping of the watering can I was holding that I hit it with... xo
Marion: i understand the crying. it seems that no matter how gentle we try to be in the world, we still enact violence, at least sometimes ... i killed a possum the other evening, driving at twilight ... there was nothing i could do, i suppose -- it ran our from shadow and under the tires too quickly for me to react -- but i still felt awful ... my presence on that road that evening was a death ...
this photograph! - my mind shrieks in disbelief, that this in particular is possible, but also that anything in particular is possible! eyes, face, expression, mandible, body, staging between such ephemeral yet seemingly static forces as blades of grass or weeds or thistle! talk about existential! and yet, talk about being!
ReplyDeletewhat might i matter in a world where this is possible? i feel my body, in the presence of the reality of the praying matis, this praying mantis, fading.
remarkable. (and that is not to say anything of scale. scale, i think, dissolves as well as humanity.)
xo
erin
erin: i felt lucky to encounter this mantis in the twilight, a reminder of how very little i know of the life around me. as i was taking photos, he turned his head to follow me with such awareness and, it seemed, intelligence -- but beyond what i understand as life, he seemed more an intricate and fabulous bit of clockwork ... which means, of course, that i understand life incorrectly ... what is the world from this creature's perspective? is there any consciousness that would make perspective? i suspect the questions themselves are foolishly off-track ... can we ever know, or only stare into a mirror that does not reflect??
ReplyDelete.
Wondrous photos. I killed a giant grasshopper yesterday and I cried. He was eating my Comfrey and my Hibiscus leaves. I can still hear the ping of the watering can I was holding that I hit it with... xo
ReplyDeleteMarion: i understand the crying. it seems that no matter how gentle we try to be in the world, we still enact violence, at least sometimes ... i killed a possum the other evening, driving at twilight ... there was nothing i could do, i suppose -- it ran our from shadow and under the tires too quickly for me to react -- but i still felt awful ... my presence on that road that evening was a death ...
ReplyDelete.