Ernest Blair Experiment

At the Inside Story, I chanced to find a copy of Walt Whitman’s book, Leaves of Grass. The First (1855) Edition.

It includes a lengthy editors introduction by Malcolm Cowley – 37 pages, followed by Whitman’s Introduction 19 pages. This is followed by twelve poems – 120 pages. To date, I am part way through the first poem. This is not easy reading..

Meanwhile, I continue to receive Brain Pickings, twice per week..

”Walt Whitman, felled by a paralytic stroke, he considered what makes life worth living and instructed himself: ”Tone your wants and tastes down enough, and make much of negatives, and more daylight and the skies””.

“He spared himself the additional self-inflicted suffering of outrage at how his body failed him – perhaps because, having proclaimed himself the poet of the Body and the poet of the Soul, he understood the two to be one. He squandered no emotional energy on the expectation that his suddenly disabled body perform a counter possible feat against reality to let him enjoy his beloved tree workouts and daily excursions to the river. He simply edited his expectations to accord with his new reality and sought to find joy there, within these new parameters of being.”

In the same Brain Pickings, there is a link to John Burroughs book ‘Whitman: A Study’.

Meanwhile, from Emergence Magazine, Kathleen Dean Moore Listen : four love songs. Regent Honeyeaters, Western Meadowlank, Brown-headed Cowbird and Red- winged Blackbird.

(photo by Kathrin Swoboda)

”When we listen, we open ourselves to new, joyous relationships with species other than our own.”

On our way to New Glasgow, we stopped at West Brooklyn to pick up the newly bound books by Legge Conservation Services (see earlier blog post HERE). They now have a new lease on life.

Acknowledgements

Edward added the links and graphics. Heather and Siqsiq travelled the backroads of Nova Scotia with me.

Postscript

‘Forests are not renewable’: the felling of Sweden’s ancient trees | Environment | The Guardian

References

Walt Whitman, 1986, Leaves of Grass, The First (1855) Edition, Penguin Classics

Brain Pickings. April 18th,2021. The Stoic remedy for when people let you down.

Emergence Magazine. April 18th,2021, Celebrating Earth Week.

This week , I needed to find some ‘light reading’. I packed up a box of books to take to the Endless Shores bookstore in Bridgetown. They will give me credit towards any book that I might purchase.

When I was last in Bridgetown library they had a display copy of “Nova Scotia: Window on the Sea”. However, it could not be taken out of the library. I found a copy at Endless Shores. It was written in 1973. Buckler wrote the text to accompany the photographs by Hans Weber (see fiftieth anniversary note HERE).

Would the writing continue the style from Ox Bells and Fireflies 1968? Included are five essays: Amethysts and Dragonflies, Mast and Anchors, Man and Snowman, Faces and Universes, Counterfeit and Coin (see posts, Chance Encounters and Pastoral Economy).

In Buckler’s words, “Nova Scotia is nearly an island, nearly the last place left where place and people are not thinned or adulterated with graftings that grow across the grain.” p.12 or

“It’s mountains take on no Cabot lordliness. They chat like uncles with their nephew valleys.”p.12.

“Nova Scotia is the face from Genesis and the face from Ruth. The face from Greco and the face from Rubens. The life of Faulkner and the life from Hardy…..It is a dictionary where the seasons look up their own meanings and test them. It is a sea-son where men can man their own helms.” p.16

After finding Buckler, I went on a search for George Orwell (Eric Blair). I found “Animal Farm” but was not ready to read it. Instead I chanced on Wendell Berry, “Home Economics: fourteen essays“. The last essay is titled “Does Community have a Value?” It describes farming in the hilly country near Port Royal (Kentucky) in 1938.

“The local community must understand itself finally as a community of interest — a common dependence on a common life and a common ground. And because, a community is, by definition, placed, its success cannot be divided from the success of its place, its natural setting and surroundings : its soils, forests, grasslands, plants and animals, water, light and air. The two economies, the natural and the human, support each other; each is the other’s hope of a durable and a livable life.” p.192.

I think the same is true for Nova Scotia.

Acknowledgements

Jennifer Crouse, owner of the Endless Shores Books and other Treasures. Edward added the graphics. Heather shared our weekend reading of Voice of the People, Chronicle Herald March 27 D4. Are we ‘tree-huggers’ or’sub-hillbillies’ ?

References

Ernest Buckler and Hans Weber, 1973, Nova Scotia: Window on the Sea, McClelland and Stewart Ltd.

Wendell Berry, 1987, Home Economics: Fourteen essays by Wendell Berry, North point Press.

Postscript

I wanted to title the blog ‘Buckler and Blair’ to correspond with the Ernest Blair Experiment but had to settle for Buckler and Berry.