Thursday, June 17, 2010

Maybe the Moon: Transformation



















In my small way I like to transform things--soak labels off jars; clear the glass; remove the brand; shift my angle of vision and see the moon on this grease-blackened-and-browned cookie sheet.






























I say this as if I am always the agent ruling my eyes to shift. In fact, often the shift happens by itself. By chance. It's the fashion to call this "creative." But I just go with it. The shift catches me. Sometimes the shift is soft, sometimes violent as when birds shoot up like geysers.

As for soaking labels off jars, that's deliberate. Yet if I make the water hot enough and wait long enough, I don't have to claw or scrape much. And sometimes glue melts and the labels just float off.

This morning when I woke at 3 A.M., thinking it was dawn, I found my notebook and wrote--a dawn of sorts. I got back to sleep. If I hadn't my eyeballs by now would feel as though they were popping out of my head. I'd be wasted. Tell me: how did you sleep last night?

13 comments:

  1. Maybe the moon indeed, Mim - how beautiful the image and the title.

    There is great mystery in worn, everyday objects. Have you read Pablo Neruda's essay 'The Poetry of Impure Objects'? (At least, I think that's the title.) I will hunt out a link for you.

    I'm en-route to Tasmania today so will be up in the air for a time, but will visit again soon. Thank you for hearing my sorrow yesterday.

    L, C x

    ReplyDelete
  2. dear mim, i love this post, and always love when you turn your sharp eye and poetic sensibility to the easily missed beauty around you. (i guess that could stand as a definition of poetry, couldnt it?!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely to hear from you all. You discern!

    Claire, I don't know that Neruda essay. Yes, send it along, but only when you have a chance. Safe return.

    Susan, it could stand for a "definition of beauty," and also be a way of living--those chance moments and that turning.

    ReplyDelete
  4. dear Mim
    Possibly the Neruda in question is his essay 'Towards an Inpure Poetry' available at http://www.geegaw.com/stories/toward_an_impure_poetry.shtml

    Enjoy!

    David@Montreal

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh I love the cookie sheet the very same as much as I love my pink bowl with a pour lip that has a big chip in it. Once a poet I knew told me that with Feng Shui you have to get rid of everything you own that is chipped or broken unless it has enormous value to you. I laughed at her because my entire household is chipped and broken. Then I sat in one of her fancy chairs and the back slat popped out and I asked her if she was going to toss it. God I'm an intolerable smart ass.

    Yesterday I want on an epic walk then taught a violin lesson and was in bed by 7:30 wild dreams all night.
    love,
    Rebecca

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the link, David.

    Radish, dear, I like brats, smart asses, sass. Love from chipped Mim and yours for dreams . . .

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nice

    I discovered, but oft resist, the knowledge that a razor blade may slice off your history.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Mim - oh good, I see David has provided you with a link to the Neruda! (Thank you, David).
    Love to you from Tasmania (it's very beautiful here. I am surrounded by water.) C x

    ReplyDelete
  9. Just plain "exuberance" as distinguished from irrational exuberance.

    For "Maybe the Moon," I obey the commandment: Thou shalt not scrape off rich-grease history with a razor-blade--one-sided.

    Yours for digging the dirt.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It is quite creative, indeed. Maybe the Moon. Good title for a song. :-)

    Greetings from London.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hello, Cuban:

    Your comment reminded me of "Fly Me to the Moon."

    Hello from the States

    ReplyDelete
  12. I slept badly, Mim - a very early rising. But Maybe the Moon is worth being awake for - lovely.

    ReplyDelete