DEADLY WATER HEMLOCK (Cicuta maculata)

DEADLY WATER HEMLOCK (Cicuta maculata) [ click photo for next . . . ]  
Native to North America. The related Conium maculatum is the
European species, made infamous as the poison given to SOCRATES
at his execution . . . [See the magnificent dialogue of PLATO,
The Crito...]


Water Hemlock,
leaflet signature . . .
Water Hemlock,
compound leaf
Water Hemlock,
flower close-up
BELOW are a few more detailed images of WATER HEMLOCK . . .


On the road in the American Northwest.







DRAWING CIRCLES

What's an island but a circle we draw around some part
of the world, a line of difference, of demarcation, separating
that which is in-side, from that which is out.

It all begins, of course, with an actual physical island,
separated by its coastline from the sea. From here, the idea
of island
proceeds to be transformed in thought, easily and
seamlessly, by the miracle of metaphor into the realm of
the more subtle and unseen.

Thus we have "islands of beauty" in an "ocean of ugliness,"
"islands of security" in a "sea of violence," "islands of peace
and tranquility"
in a "non-stop turbulent flood" of useless data
and misinformation.

The width of the circle of these metaphorical isles is entirely
of our own making. We may carry the circle in our own breast;
or it may expand to embrace the entire world, or beyond.

I
magine for a moment with me a spaceship full of friendly
beings from some unknown outback of the Universe first
coming in sight of Earth. They would almost certainly be
utterly amazed at our planet's beauty, the striking blue of
its seas, the amazing white flowforms of the clouds of its
atmosphere. To them, I'm very sure, it would seem "an
island paradise:"
an extraordinary circle of life in a vast
ocean of orbiting waterless rough rocks. It might do much
to attune our own thinking of Earth's unique place in space
if we were to draw our own metaphorical circle
in much the same way.



A NEW WORD FOR SOUND

Somebody help me here:

How are we to describe natural essentials,

like, good air, good soil, good water,

and well, here we have a little, but serious, problem . . .

good sound?



THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM

Along a trail through a high

cottonwood meadow,

horsemint and death camas

grow side by side,

the one healing herb,

the other poison root.

Such is the strangeness of the way things are.

Sure sign of "evil" as a dark

force of nature, out

to do us in?

Quite doubtful . . .

More the ever-present possibility,

as we cross paths with the good,

and the bad,

of not knowing the difference

between them.


| download mp3 | 5.4 Mb [Windows: r click; Mac: opt + click] |


IX.27.2009,
Heather Camp,
Eagle Cap Wilderness

DRAWING CIRCLES is a part of
THE LITTLE CLAVIER please preview 150 of 631 pages
w/ my black & white photography [opens in new window]












Featured gallery, 100 MINIATURES, a set of 100 black & white photographs. ONE image. ONE idea. ONE new way of looking . . .
100 MINIATURES—online gallery

Each miniature is a kind of meditation on one idea & one image;
Each lasts 30 seconds; They play in random order;
The music is my BOREA Mix,
for hand-played ePecussion Orchestra.
[ mouse over for controls / lower right fro full-screen ]




All Photographs & texts by Cliff Crego © 1998 -2016 picture-poems.com
(created: VII.22.2007)