Sunday, May 16, 2004

Discovering a good blog is like finding money in your pocket

There are several blogs that I check regularly.

One is frog, an insightful woman who writes of all manner of things; partners, spirituality, family, small people (a.k.a., children). She frequently references her friend, "flea" who writes the blog One Good Thing. Flea evidently owns and runs a sex-toy shop in some northern suburb of Chicago.

From flea's blog, I discovered a poet's blog, entitled A Pillow Book from the Land of Artichokes. And I worried about the name "Calypso Dragon 13" being on the long side!

I'm going to add "Artichoke Heart's" blog to my list. Her writing is lyrical. (And why am I surprised? She is a published poet, who travels around the country giving poetry readings.)

Now, it so happens that S and I have a large, framed photograph in our fireplace room entitled, "Pow Wow, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump." It shows native Americans dancing in full, ceremonial dress at a pow-wow. The photo is full of intensity and color and movement. As S has either Blackfeet or Crow blood in her family history, we have this photo in our home, in a place of honor.

Back to Artichoke Heart. Her posting of Monday, May 10th is this evocative description of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in southern Alberta. Here's an example of her writing:
"...one can’t help but feel similarly disquieted by thoughts of erasure, loss, evanescence, and flux, while standing at the top of the cliff at Head-Smashed-In, looking out over miles and miles of wind-ruffled prairie below. For over 5,000 years there was the deafening clamor of stampeding hooves, the unimaginable sound of as many as 300 buffalo raining down from the sky and falling to the earth, the songs sung to the spirit of the buffalo lacing the air like the silky warble of a meadowlark, and now there is only the song of the wind . . . and silence."
Yup, reading this blog is better than finding that unexpected $20 bill.



No comments: