RipRap

Death and Senescence

I have been reading a book: Trees: Their Natural History in which one learns more than one could imagine about how trees work. Today I was reading about leaves.

Death and Senescence

            Senescence – the process of deterioration whereby leaves sever themselves from the tree and fall

 

against the gray sky

one maple leaf

tan, dried

holds on

clinging

to living

in late February

 

death came on too soon

no preparation

the abscission zone

that small line

low on glue cells

did not exist

had not been prepared

for separation

Kayaking trip mind map

Here is a mind map of a kayaking day trip to hemlock lake in the finger lakes.

Download hemlock_trip.pdf

zero 7

Sitting quietly
listening
to Zero 7
in a kind of calm daze
I look out
the window
at the gentle drift
of snow flakes
each
following
their own
separate spiral
wandering
on their own path
to the ground.

Slow
and now
fading
it was only
a minor squall.

The tree tops are golden in the early morning sun behind the old wooden Buddha in the window. Listening to the stereophonics, and sipping coffee, my eye follows the whysteria vine that crawls the west side of the window on the south side of the house.

arc and line
continuous curve and swirl
snow melt fals straight down

T-2

 

morning after

the breezy

day

beauty

 

beat

beatitude

rain

 

mud slog

Phoebe the (long low)

dog

 

brown

morning

java grog

 

gutter drone

the blood slows

jazzy sun and warm

all gone

T-Shirt

mid-winter
driving
with the moon roof
open
window open
white T-Shirt
and elbow
in the breeze at forty mph
and sixty
degrees
on north coast
of NY
only the teens
in shorts
in the afternoon
tell me
i have not
lost my mind