A Subsequent Lecture
“You’ll be surprised” /
You’re thinking that the present site favors
a broad expanse of fallow farmland more
than it does a fallen city. Let that be Lesson One.
The city is there, and none too deep. Soon
as we begin, you’ll be surprised how thin
the veil turns out to be. You’ll be surprised
how much survives interment, how little
survives intact. For the most part, our city
comes out in pieces, puzzling as any
deliberately jigsawed for an evening’s
entertainment. And as you might have heard
(if not, here’s Lesson Two) the pleasure lies
in fingering loose ends toward likely shape,
actually making something of these bits
of persons, places, things one finds once one
commences late interrogation
of undervalued, overlooked terrain—
what we in the business like to call the dig.
Reprinted by permission of Scott Cairns and his publishers, Paraclete Press.
Also in this Issue
Issue 49 / May 26, 2016- Editor's Note from May 26, 2016
Issue 49: The spark of human creation, beauty’s golden number, and beholding the bison. /
- Let There Be Light at Every Human’s Creation?
Sadly, no. But biologists have new ways to reveal the unseen. /
- Beauty Has a Number
Phi, the “Golden Ratio,” seems to be everywhere you look. /
- Reckoning with the Buffalo
The American bison’s fragile wildness. /
- Wonder on the Web
Issue 49: Links to amazing stuff.