Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Microcosms



So much world in so small a space. Look at that amazing dandelion. Each of those little white threads ready to fly off, each carrying its own world.  Boggles the mind.  Well, my mind, at least.

I like seemingly simple things: clean close-ups, small impressions, single flowers, 'ordinary' people, though no person is ordinary if you zoom in for a close-up, just as no flower or stone or weed is simple if you lean in and focus.

I like this lettuce, grown right outside my door, so delicate and astounding:




I like this birch bark, with all its convoluted curls:




Many years ago, I read a slim book about an ordinary man, Marcovaldo, by Italo Calvino, and while I was reading I felt as if this book was a doorway with a sign saying, "Come on in," for this was the sort of story I knew I would write--stories about seemingly simple, ordinary people.

If you write, was there a book like that, that opened a door for you?  If you don't write, do you like the simple or the complex?

10 comments:

  1. That birch bark looks so delicate in the closeup picture. No wonder deer and elk like to nibble on it!

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  2. (Click to enlarge--photos so much better that way!)

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  3. ... any wine recipes for the hated dandelion? hahaha

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  4. I like a little of this, a little of that...

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  5. I'm still thinking of your words today.I really don't know if I could write now.I used to write and enjoying the letters, the words...Nowadays I'm so confuse when I need to put my feelings and thoughts as words in a paper.I have mixed English, French and Portuguese here!
    Well...I'm sure about one thing.I love reading your "words"!Thanks so much!
    Hugs
    Léia

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  6. Wonderful photo of the birch bark.

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  7. Thanks for visiting Spittin Tabacca Juice. I have closed that blog and incorporated all of the contents and comments into Abraham Lincolns Blog.

    abrahamlincolnsblog.blogspot.com

    Thanks for the kind comment you left there this morning.

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  8. It depends on my mood and state of wakefulness. Sometimes what is simple on the surface contains deep meanings below.

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  9. I thought you were kidding about liking to look at trees/bark...but your bark is much better than mine. Why do I feel like biting something?

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