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October 29, 2007
unfinished work..
To begin.. I have not completed or feel even close to completing my mapping of The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams. I was planning on using the motion software to extend its meaning through technology use but have not quite had a chance to tamper with it, or rather map out my thoughts on what I want to achieve with motion. For now, I still have what I have created with Imovie, but have still more to contribute. I just want to be able to explain why I chose to map this poem, and in particular one line of the poem "So much depends upon..". To explain my Imovie, I chose to do this mapping on the season of fall in conjunction with the line "So much depends upon". Fall is an incredible season, marked with so much change, sudden change in fact. And to me, I find myself changing subtley with the leaves. Every year this season comes and goes in a blink of an eye, and I remain here to watch it as it watches me. I depend on Fall, so much depends on fall, not just fall alone, but change, and time that moves in a direction that tends to have meaning to each and everyone of us wherever we may be. I think anyone one could assign meaning to the line so much depends upon, as long as they can explain the value of what that may be. If I may continue, I have spent many weeks thinking about this poem, this line in particular, and its relationship to me and my surroundings. I have been drawn to these leaves more than I have ever been in my many years observing this season and find so much of their characteristics to share meaning with my life. So much depends upon this season, this time that has a life span of merely a few months, unfolding out of summer, and rushed into winter. It symbolizes many things to me. For example, many things have happened to me during this season, I have suffered greatly during this time, I have lost a loved one during this time, and each year, I keep compiling memories on top of memories to this season. It now has so much meaning and value attached to it that I feel it connects me with myself and how I fit into this life. I depend on it so much for growth, inspiration, a new beginning, and a time to sit still and think about how I have found myself in the big picture. A part of my Imovie I took picture of the fall leaves in a graveyard symbolizing how I have found fall to meet death in several ways. The beauty of the leaves and the season still find growth in a place of sadness and death. This shows me that life and death are adjacent to one another, they are connected in a way that we neglect to notice. So much depends upon fall to occur so it makes life move as it does, it is almost watching a lifetime pass us by in the scale of a trees leaves. Each and every one of the leaves on the tree has lived a lifetime, their life is on a different scale than ours. It begins in spring, and ends at the end of fall when they get that two month change of majestic and mystifying colors that remind us of nature's magic and eternal beauty. Before they fall from their host, to the ground they still get another 2 or three weeks to keep its resilient colors until they dry up and crumble. Disintegrating slowly into the wind doing their last dance until they have disappeared. This is a short lived life they have, yet they always go out with a bang. I have noticed them and value you them deeply. It is a constant reminder that I am still here, and that the world is tangible and existing. Time is merged somewhere within the cycle of seasons, but I no longer look at the seasons as time going to fast, because in actuality time never changes its pace, it is one of the constants we have that can be measured. What seems to make the seasons cycle through so quickly is the pace that you are changing at, and how you see yourself unfolding within these rhythmical cycles.
I have written a few poems about the season.. they may not seem to match entirely my reasoning behind the map, but it stands as a sign for how I have watched these leaves and how they find their way into my thoughts and fester away in my mind until I quickly scratch down what they have managed to do to me and my thinking.
Somewhat mirrors the format of The Red Wheelbarrow
I. So much depends upon
Fall Leaves
Stealing time
beneath your feet.
II. Fall leaves
adjacent lives
whisper secrets
Decoded by
withered souls.
III.
Fall..
fall leaves dance in the wind
a twirl pool of autumns colors
hypnotizing me as I walk briskly
with faint goosebumps; a welcomed chill
a morning where dew finds a home on the
crisp green grass
soggy tennis shoes yield damp socks
rolled shoulders provide extra heat
diverse leaves find a home with each other on the ground
skipping across sidewalks
others matted in gutters
Scurrying squirrels search silently
Trees behind schedule stretch across the sky
emphasizing the patches of gold found like skin pigmentation
A mere bystander making my trek..gazing at the beauty that
I discovered this morning, just like I do annually, always oblivious to when
the first leaf hinted that it was about to change like a chameleon
making life move as it does..
nostalgia for past falls and how quickly it slips through my hand
as quick as I told my mom not to hold my hand in public
and how new lovers find my hand to grasp
as we meet sidewalks
that bare a new home for cold leaves
covering the ground like moss
giving lovers walking something to notice at their feet
as they move in sync ..
underneath the harvest moon's glow
IV.
His four seasons
My memories of him are woven within the works of my mind
Spiraling in my heart like fall leaves rise and twist when the wind changes direction
Sometimes I am strong enough to reminisce
But most often times it hurts my heart to much to think deeply about him
Because it still hasn't hit me that I will never see his face again outside of pictures and dreams
Nor hear his voice say "Okay baby" muffled because death has chosen him to suffer first
Tears flood in and squeeze my mind
He was the only man in my life that loved me unconditionally
And told me I was beautiful when I had seemed to forget
And told me to slow down when I am in a rush because being so hurried can
get you in trouble
Giving me those lessons of life through passing seasons and repetitive car rides where he
lectured loud because he was wise far beyond his years
as he would say "I've been around the block a few times, I know what I'm talking about"
and back then I took those priceless sermons for granted reading signs outside windows of cars that took us through the passing years
The color of his words painted my mind and sculpted works of art, and damn he was proud of it
And eternally I will harvest the roots of his existence that stay anchored in my heart
and anyone who knows me can know him too.
Posted by maxell at October 29, 2007 03:55 PM
Comments
After reading this post, I have a much better grasp on why leaves and fall have such an important role in your mapping.
I like in this post when you say "I think anyone one could assign meaning to the line so much depends upon, as long as they can explain the value of what that may be." I think this is true and it would be interesting to see how people would finish the line "So much depends upon...". Personally, I'm not sure how I would finish it right now. I guess I should think about it.
-Max
Eng240Weston
Posted by: gmweston at November 5, 2007 07:59 PM
(Would you like some Motion assistance in class on Monday?)
I'm fascinated by the line "Trees behind schedule stretch across the sky"
a lovely bifurcation point in the poam --and at this bifurcation point (which permits shifts in multiple directions), what does this ability to be behind schedule say about enclosure systems?
What are the enclosure systems active and implied in this thought?
What does the stretching say about enclosure systems?
and about the sky as a host or enclosure system, or the sky as some other form of system?
Posted by: thyliasm at December 1, 2007 02:18 AM
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