{"id":54757,"date":"2024-01-02T08:09:32","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T16:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=54757"},"modified":"2024-01-02T08:09:34","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T16:09:34","slug":"the-pear-tree-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=54757","title":{"rendered":"The Pear Tree revisited."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I figured I’d offer some reassurance at the beginning of 2024: YDP will be as eclectic as ever, as haphazard in what gets picked up and woven in with the rest of what fills my brain, so that you can rely on at least one thing remaining the same in your lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a start it’ll be some thoughts by the Italian Marxist Antonin Gramsci, a poem by Ruth Awad, a Lebanese-American poet who is also a tattoo artist and an insurance manager who collects rescue Pomeranians, and some views of my pear tree. How is that for a mix?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

House Finches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regular readers are familiar with the pear tree<\/a>, and its neighboring hawthorn tree, seen from my chair where I hang out when my body – what else is new – vetoes the plans for various hikes and outings yet again. It is where I found myself last week, amazed at the variety of birds who kept me company this late in the season, a humming bird included. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anna’s Hummingbird<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It gave me time to reread Gramsci, in particular his apropos musings on (not) celebrating the New Year. I don’t share his sentiment of hating the occasion, although I don’t love New Year’s either. At my age, frankly, one of the thoughts that is inescapable when you are feeling lousy and the numbers change from ’23 to ’24, is personal: will this be the year I die? After all we lost a lot of friends this year – here is an Oregon ArtsWatch list<\/a> which included a mirror photograph I took of Henk Pander during our Mutual Portraits<\/em> project, a close friend enormously missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But Gramsci sets me right in the rest of his one page-proclamation<\/a>: you want to focus on continuity and spirit, not on breaking points and final balances, filled with resolutions that you will not keep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I want every morning to be a new year\u2019s for me. Every day I want to reckon with myself, and every day I want to renew myself…..I would like every hour of my life to be new, though connected to the ones that have passed<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Song Sparrow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of the stranger deliberations I’ve read in a while, he also hopes for the arrival of socialism in order to jettison the celebration dates handed down by the ancestors. I guess it would give us something to talk about, shared hopes for differing reasons…. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thrushes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not so sure what I would talk about with today’s poet, Ruth Awad, whose work, as far as I’ve read it, lacks the balance of emotionality and intellect that I so crave. If that sounds condescending it is not meant to be – there is much to be said for the offerings of the Ruth Awads or Maggi Smiths of the world, embraced by contemporary readers for their accessibility and courage to be sentimental. If it keeps an interest in poetry alive, so be it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mean it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Black capped chickadees<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The poem below, published in The Atlantic<\/em> at the end of the year, drew me in, though, for one specific sentiment, expressed in the last words: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“…if only you’ll let he world soften you with its touching.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To let the world soften us, or even better, to comfort and fill us with occasional awe at a time when we tend to harden from fear and\/or sorrow, we have to attend<\/em> to it. The “world” is all around us, easily, constantly available, no extravagant or even local excursions needed. You just have to sit and look, birds perching in the pear tree, reminding us of an existence not governed by dates, or resolutions, just renewal from hour to hour, here, now, in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gramsci’s theory of Hegemony, a strategy of power pursued through cultural work, can wait. So can my knitting. Or folding the laundry. I just look at the birds. It is healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

White crowned sparrow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reasons to Live<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because if you can survive
the violet night, you can survive<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the next, and the fig tree will ache
with sweetness for you in sunlight that arrives<\/p>\n\n\n\n

first at your window, quietly pawing
even when you can\u2019t stand it,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and you\u2019ll heavy the whining floorboards
of the house you filled with animals<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as hurt and lost as you, and the bearded irises will form
fully in their roots, their golden manes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

swaying with the want of spring\u2014
live, live, live, live!<\/em>\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

one day you\u2019ll put your hands in the earth
and understand an afterlife isn\u2019t promised,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but the spray of scorpion grass keeps growing,
and the dogs will sing their whole bodies<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in praise of you, and the redbuds will lay
down their pink crowns, and the rivers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

will set their stones and ribbons
at your door if only<\/p>\n\n\n\n

you\u2019ll let the world
soften you with its touching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Ruth Awad<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chestnut backed Chickadees<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Music<\/a> today is conducted by a guy named Birnbaum – pear tree – the enchanting second movement of Schubert’ Symphony #8, the Great. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the full version<\/a> with a different orchestra, Mallwitz conducting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nuthatch<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I figured I’d offer some reassurance at the beginning of 2024: YDP will be as eclectic as ever, as haphazard in what gets picked up and woven in with the rest of what fills my brain, so that you can rely on at least one thing remaining the same in your lives. For a start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,197,36],"tags":[1454,1455],"class_list":["post-54757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-photography","category-poetry","category-politics","tag-antonin-gramsci","tag-ruth-awad"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Pear Tree revisited. - YDP - your daily picture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=54757\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Pear Tree revisited.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I figured I’d offer some reassurance at the beginning of 2024: YDP will be as eclectic as ever, as haphazard in what gets picked up and woven in with the rest of what fills my brain, so that you can rely on at least one thing remaining the same in your lives. 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