L'aura del Campo

Dance of the Midges

Teatro Nacional

Dance of the Midges

Like pale grey puffs of lint
lifting in the barest breeze,
dead leaves hanging from the trees,
maple and birch both weeping,
a thousand midges dance an autumn dance.

Perchance to slowly wander Eddy Street
to see a friend appear before me
a Danish ghost, a youthful Hamlet,
arrayed in purple and grey,

to hear the crush of leaves beneath our feet,
feel the two wing snowflakes dancing round us,
see the sunset edging up the mountain ridges
like our short-lived lives, the flight of midges.

© Kåre Enga [166.232] 2009-10-18

Sketching it out:

Saturday afternoon there were thousands of midges in the air. We had a freeze that killed everything off, then a mild day... the images of dead leaves while I was walking down Eddy Street taking notes. Then Steven appeared. Second time in two days... like magic.

Note, since some of you have asked: Midges: think of gnats. A swarm of gnats at dusk is a ghost. Which I didn't know... but appropriate.

Verlaine's "Il pleure dans mon coeur" set to music by Billy Cowie:



Verlaine's

Chanson d'Automne

Les saglots longs
Des violons
De l'automne
Blessent mon couer
D'une langeur
Monotone.

Tout suffocant
Et blême, quand
Sonne l'heure,
Je me souviens
Des jours anciens
Et je pleure

Et je m'e vais
Au vent mauvais
Qui m'emporte
Deçà, delà,
Pareil à la
Feuille morte.

Discourse on Verlaine's Chanson d'Automne: http://www.textetc.com/workshop/wt-verlaine-1.html

Thou:



Remember when I made designs with emoticons? It's been a couple years. I found the above design in a blog entry of Anyea . Ain't it purty? Anyea has a wonderful visual artistic streak that shows up in her blog all the time. She deserves more visitors.

Me and Mine:

Saturday I was busy. Sunday I was ill.

Saturday: market (apples, pears, feta, liver), the Grizz game, running into Steven while walking through the midges, Tosca (all 3 hours worth).

Sunday: dragging myself out for a pot of licorice root tea (very nice, sweet; thank-you, Rebecca).

Too ill to write or blog. Today I'm much better, but I'm taking it easy as this is a week packed full of activities that will not allow for illness to intervene.

Watt's Gnus:

Grizz won 41-34 in a nail-biter. I sat in the south-end with East Washington Eagle fans. Good game. Nice safety. No turnovers!

Bills won 16-13 over the Jets in overtime. Did Zack place that bet?

Montana: 44º in Missoula at 1 p.m.

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