from HUMAN / NATURE
Stephen Ratcliffe

     

4.27

pale blue-white sky in window opposite the unmade yellow

and blue bed, still dark tobacco plant leaves in window

above it, bird calling from the lower right foreground

 

man on radio noting "another hospital has been sealed

off in Beijing," thousands of people under quarantine

 

man on right recalling an eyewitness account of 1,800

tennis courts in the center of Paris in 1540, Montaigne's

younger brother killed when a ball hit him under the ear

 

silver of sun reflecting across blue-white plane, curve

of white spray blown back from wave breaking beside it

 

 

 

4.28

grey cloud slanting across black forest green canyon of ridge,

finch perched on feeder in right foreground, sound of drop

falling into watering can next to green glass back door

 

man on the phone getting fever after trip to Seattle,

claiming "I didn't get any germs when I kissed Yassar Arafat"

 

Puttenham using hysteron proteron to describe his departure

from mistress, "I kissed her cherry lips and took my leave,"

followed by "I took my leave and kissed her"

                                               white line

of jet trail slanting across blue-white sky in the right

corner, blue-green plane of wave in foreground below it

 

 

 

4.29

diagonal width of pink cloud against pale blue sky in upper

right corner, grey cloud moving to the right across still

dark plane of the ridge, sound of jet passing overhead

 

woman on radio claiming theaters and discos shut down

in Beijing, thermal imaging cameras now in airports

 

woman on phone recalling Bogart In a Lonely Place, Laurel's 

blinds revealing her in "a diaphanous negligee," Dix asleep

the night the hat-check girl is thrown into a ditch

                                                      shaft

of sunlight slanting across shadowed plane of ridge, sunlit

gull perched on the triangular orange tip of the GROIN sign

 

 

 

4.30

yellow goldfinch perched on feeder in lower right corner,

red finch rising and falling across field toward it, white

clouds moving to the right against pale blue sky above ridge

 

black and white image of woman's mouth opening in upper left

corner, no words coming out of it

                                    woman on phone recalling

Polish film set in forest, wind moving through trees "poplar-

like in form," musical score "not pressed into the service

of emotional content"

                        plane of grey cloud tilting down

toward top of dark green ridge, line of seven pelicans

flapping across grey-green plane in right foreground

 

 

 

5.1

diagonal silver line opening in grey cloud above still dark

ridge, yellow of scotch broom in green of field below it,

goldfinch perched on dried hemlock stalk behind feeder

 

man on phone noting his back "has recovered remarkably,"

asking if Basic Heidegger includes "The Language of Nature"

 

woman in quilted green jacket leaning across top of Dutch

door, man on the left recalling dream about her brother,

whose three-dimensional book is called Some Instances

 

sunlight flickering off blue-green wave in foreground,

plane of white clouds in pale blue sky on the horizon

 

 

 

5.2

circular orange flower against green passion vine-covered

fence in left foreground, wind bending grass stalk across

from it, plane of grey cloud above ridge

                                           woman in white

shirt leaving her job to follow her passion, her brother

living on $10/day surfing in Chile

                                     health care worker

in Toronto noting "we are at end of an epidemiological

curve," no new cases of SARS in nine days, "quarantine"

originally meaning "forty days"

                                  lighter grey streaks

in cloud above circular green pine on point, whiteness

of gull perched on triangular orange tip of GROIN sign

 

 

 

5.3

goldfinch moving from dried hemlock stalk to feeder beside

it, line of sunlit white cloud across top of ridge, pale

blue sky to the left of it

                             Feldman noting "the total

rhythm of the paintings as Rothko arranged them create

an unbroken continuity," adding "some of the patterns repeat"

 

woman on phone thinking of people as landscape and landscape

people, still life "a frozen moment more like still death,"

which "doesn't make much sense now that I read it again"

 

lines of white waves breaking across grey-green plane

of channel, rain cloud on horizon next to the point

 

 

 

5.4

grey plane of clouds moving to the left in upper right

corner, goldfinch perched on yellow scotch broom branch

below it, sound of jet passing overhead

                                          Ingrid Bergman

dropping a key behind Cary Grant's back when she embraces

him, Grant warning her "take it easy on that liquor"

                                                       man

in New Zealand who doesn't have the shallow virtue of crowd

in Sidney, wants to fly to fjord island off the coast of New

Zealand, waves there "no one has ever seen or surfed before"

 

horizontal line of grey white clouds in pale blue sky next

to point, white gull flapping across green plane of ridge

 

 

 

5.5

blinding silver circle of sun rising above tree-lined top

of still dark ridge, upturned curve of pine branch against

blue sky next to it, wingspan of jet passing overhead

                                                        man

on the left asking about para- in relation to hypotaxis, man

across table thinking GOD/BUSH/BOB/ROCK is example of latter

 

woman at round table recalling dog chasing a squirrel around

empty blue pool, blood splattering out when she gets it, man

in Alphabet City calling her father "Uncle Bob"

                                                  pale blue

line of sky opening in grey-white plane of clouds, a pair

of pelicans gliding toward circular green pine on point

 

 

 

5.6

silhouette of finch perched on tip of pine branch in right

foreground, silver edge of sun rising above ridge, diagonal

lines of white clouds slanting across pale blue sky overhead

 

Adorno noting how radio's broadcast of symphony "compensates

for its slight alternatives, tilts over into its opposite"

 

man on radio recalling Bush landing on aircraft carrier

anchored 39 miles from San Diego, S-3B Viking worth $27

million, Abraham Lincoln worth $4.5 billion

                                              pale blue

sky's reflected in blue-white plane below it, white lines

of waves mover moving in below circular green pine on point

//   Advance   //