of still life with fire— on the origins of things
the quote on the bench:
“The question of origin hides the origin of the question” Francois Jacqmin
on the old vine row
scattered under marigolds,
of still life with fire—
when dahlias dieback
and the last daylily scape is deadheaded,
bees dance beyond the sun’s fusion
sending their engorged queen underground
to overwinter in the rhizosphere.
hands turn red in the harvest,
lento, adagio verasion is heavy
in brix and columns of color
respecting the ecology of genuflection.
one a day, two a day broken syllables,
grapes drop among the artemisia,
rosemary, geraniums, and hyssops.
five trunks branch low,
humans still discover origin stories.
creation myths trapped in the physics
of our time handclap the big bang
of time’s illusions in expansion.
endless referential questions,
are you the universe discovering the universe?
recite the lines down the trail we walked on.
the quote on the second bench:
“We know more about the movement of celestial bodies
than about the soil underfoot.” Da Vinci
with a side of vegetables and herbs,
redwood duff, lady’s bedstraw, and pinkroot,
some plants genuflect to deposit seeds
in the mossy geocarpy.
incoming discovery of Spigelia Genuflexa,
the art of taxonomy finds and recognizes new species.
warding off instead of opening up,
bow your head to make the sign of the cross—
through the receding arches,
chasing the mechanics of celestial bodies,
we forget the function of the soil beneath our feet.
we forget Earth is the one place in the universe with fire.
fingers to fork, first the meeting was the thing,
then the purpose of the meeting became the thing.
weave between dead cuttings in pyres spaced evenly
for the burning of the vines.
the quote on the third bench
“upon every joy between crisis and catastrophe, remember to taste the stars.”
who gathers in the tasting room,
biochar soot and ash on the cave roof
despite the dangerous rupture between humanity and nature?
the cosmos remains sympathetic toward life.
Pourquoi? we gather in the harmony of spheres
to find retrocausality in an eternal golden braid.
time loops and the future causes the past.
explore these contradictions in life. face paradoxes
with the human eye thinking of the human I,
the brain, the mind, the self, and the soul, reach for techgnosis.
collective intelligence in the electric garden of forking paths
mass consciousness evolves in the noosphere
to look back on me the I and the id.
who am I to add a quote to a bench?
such a poiesis needs a robust and spiritual vision
of the human person to keep the hive at bay.
a vision not rooted in biological fact
or even religious essentialism,
but instead in consciousness intensified.
a creative force, a work of revelation and concealment,
of hidden folds and open kinships,
folds folding in upon itself to follow time.
in dappled sunlight
space manifold metaverse,
of still life with fire—
