What do we know
August 13, 2009 by Bird
Filed under Blog, Good Stuff, Navel Gazing, On My Travels
I saw so much that day, but it’s the ephemeral things that I can’t get out of my head.
Pine tree tops
In the blue night
frost haze, the sky glows
with the moon
pine tree tops
bend snow-blue, fade
into sky, frost, starlight.
The creak of boots.
Rabbit tracks, deer tracks,
what do we know.
Gary Snyder
Great post. I loved the photographs and also the words.
Cheers Carver, I think Gary Snyder is one of my favourites – to me, this poem is one of his best.
Nice photos and great selection of poetry.
Thank you David C, your own spider picture is fabulous!
Beautiful pics, Bird. That feather is gorgeous! I don’t think I’ve seen a bird of those colors. And the poem…it reminds me a little of the icy, snowy photos you took around the holidays last year…and it’s making me yearn for the cold weather…
Hi Holly, the bird that the feather came from is a Jay, and I’ve always wondered why it is that you usually find brown, black or white feathers but rarely these gorgeous coloured ones
That poem is one of my all time favourites and though it applies better to winter, when I found those deer tracks so clear in the grass I couldn’t get it out of my head.
You know, that week or so of hard winter that I photographed has also been in my mind, and when I copied the poem down I was actually thinking to myself of that and wondering if the poem worked with what is obviously a blazing summer post. I decided it fit my purpose of expressing mystery in a way I never could myself, but maybe I’ll use it again come wintertime
…and I’d be lying if I said I couldn’t use a few more weeks of summer, but I do love the beauty of real winter weather too…
The poetry really is a good one
I love the shot with the tracks on the grass.
You can fantasize about who or what went by
And Jay feathers are some of my Favs
Jay feathers are so beautiful – this was the first time I ever found one of their bright wing feathers so it felt like finding treasure.
I’m pretty sure that the tracks were deer. The right size, and I have seen deer in that place before…it’s a lot of fun to puzzle over a set of tracks
Ahhh..I love to speculate on a feather..why and what bird it belonged too..Lovely post for Nature Notes Bird…..Michelle
Thank you Michelle, and thank you even more for hosting nature notes. This must be the prettiest feather I have ever found, (not counting peacock) small too, only about two inches long. It’s from the wing stripe of a Eurasian Jay (plain ol’ Jay for European readers).
The feather is amazing but I’m struck by the beauty and anonymity of the second photo.
Even now just looking at the picture I can feel how it was to find these tracks.
I TOTALLY want that feather!
It’s a beauty, isn’t it?
There’s something about your green grass photo that comforts me. Love all that lush. It must have enjoyed some nice summer rain.
It’s true, that grass has had plenty of rain… and sun luckily, because the days have been changeable with a little of each
That jay feather is gorgeous, and your choice of poetry is perfect for the post. You have a beautiful blog.
Thanks so much for stopping by at mine, and for your kind comments.
Vicki, thank you so much. That Gary Snyder poem has been in my head for nearly six months now, to the extent that whenever I see something like the feather or those tracks in the grass I find myself shaking my head and saying “what do we know”. I’m glad you think it fits with these things too.
Hi Bird, Neat webpage… You are a very creative person!!!! I enjoyed the photo of the feather.. Is that a Bluejay??? Looks like it. We have lots of jays around here.
Thanks for coming to my blog. Please come back anytime. You can see my bird photos IF you click on BIRDS or BLUEBIRDS on my sidebar.
Betsy
Hi betsyfromtennesee, thank you for coming to visit me! You are very kind. The feather is from a Eurasian Jay (but we just call them plain ‘ol Jay) and was part of the birds brilliant blue wing stripe. We don’t have Bluejays in the UK which is a shame, as they are really pretty birds!
Hi Bird, I love the feather, I came across one a few weeks back and was puzzling for ages what bird it belonged too. I eventually found one on a forum and all was revealed
Yours tracks are intriguing, another one that I do is see little holes and dens in the ground, and I wonder who lives here? My countryside knowledge is rather poor but I am learning all the time. Great poetry to go with the images, nice one
I love finding little tracks like that – often they will be rabbits, but hares also sleep outdoors in “scrapes” (they don’t make holes). I think badgers and foxes wear little tracks into the grass or scrape little temporary dens to sit in as well- but don’t take my word for it
Deeper holes will be an animals living or nursery quarters.
When I found those tracks I did also photograph a perfect deer shaped impression in the grass where the deer had sat down for a while. To be honest that is what formed my guess as much as anything (plus this was on private land where there are never dogs and currently no livestock). I’m just learning too, I’m certainly no tracker but I spend a fair bit of time trying to do a Sherlock Holmes whenever I find things like that