This week’s liminal photo has a name. Haha, pretentious, considering the quality of my photography? Much. But it still has a name: “Stairway to Heaven.”
I like this photo because a perfectly liminal space is that between life and death, earth and heaven.
Have you been watching for #liminality? What have you found?
Here is a poem by H.D. that I thought of because of the record heat wave in Arizona this week. Hilda Doolittle is a poet whose poems I worked with for my dissertation. Ultimately, I dropped her as one of my subjects, choosing to focus on Jorie Graham, Sylvia Plath, Muriel Rukeyser, Adrienne Rich, and Linda Hogan, for the most part. Her work was so precise and crystalline and so focused on her classical allusions, that it wasn’t warm enough for me (sorry for the pun). But this poem perfectly captures the heavy hot air. The air that makes it difficult for the lungs to expand.
Heat
O wind, rend open the heat, cut apart the heat, rend it to tatters. Fruit cannot drop through this thick air-- fruit cannot fall into heat that presses up and blunts the points of pears and rounds the grapes. Cut the heat-- plough through it, turning it on either side of your path.
I like this photo too, Luanne. Speaking of “Stairway to Heaven,” have you heard about the lawsuit? Seems a little silly to me.
I heard about the lawsuit yesterday. Seriously, after all these years?
That was my first reaction, but then I heard that they were already sued by them for many other songs which have been won or settled. Did you hear that? So apparently it wasn’t the case of them waiting for a super long time before complaining, but a systematic complaint against them on a large scale. Have you heard that?
No. I heard that the people suing lost the case but I don’t know the whole story.
Thanks, Jill! I responded about the song below after what Kate wrote. This is what I said: That was my first reaction, but then I heard that they were already sued by them for many other songs which have been won or settled. Did you hear that? So apparently it wasn’t the case of them waiting for a super long time before complaining, but a systematic complaint against them on a large scale. Have you heard that?
I never heard anything about that, Luanne.
Great post, as usual. Love the way your photo has both vertical and circular movement.If photos could sing, this one would be modern, atonal music.
Ah, thank you, Elaine. Yes, the vertical and the circular is so interesting in contrast to each other. Modern, atonal is ok, as long as it isn’t that horrible cello solo I complained about in my one of my posts LOL.
Yes, staircases, another liminal space! A very visceral poem, we’ve had a little of that heat today…
Strong heat is just awful. I am sick of it. We went away from it for a couple of days, but I feel so sluggish today. So…… sluggish……
I love the stairway to heaven, Luanne 😀 It’s winter here, but still hot in the tropics – I’m still waiting for the promised cold snap 😉
What kind of temps do you get in winter? And what is a cold snap like? Do you get snow? I have a lot of questions today apparently!
Haaaa. I love questions…
Our lowest temps in winter are about 16c (or 60F). A cold snap for us would be about 14c and we never get snow here. In the Southern states of Australia it’s a lot colder and – yes, it’s snowing there now 😀
We’re kind of upside down to the US. It’s like I live in Florida and my family live in Canada – but our south is cold and yours is warm. Wow – I don’t think that made sense at all! LOL
Especially since Canada isn’t part of the U.S. Hahahaha! But, no, I got your point. Gosh, I would love to come live there. It sounds so beautiful and knowing it never gets that cold is wonderful. But it’s too far from my kids.
Canada was the coldest place I could think of (LOL) 😀
North Dakota? Oh wait, is New Zealand part of Australia? hehehe
Haaaa! Just about 😉
Love that poem!
Me too. It really fits very strong heat.
H.D. captures heat so very well. Here in Florida, our temps are not as high as yours but the humidity is very weighty. And some early mornings when leaving for work, opening the front door was like opening the door to 450 degree oven. I’d almost stagger back from the blast of heat. I think I’ve made a photo that makes me think of liminality, but it will be awhile before I post it. In my (perpetually failing) efforts to organize, I’m trying to set out my blog posts ahead of time, regardless of inspiration … if that makes any sense 😉
Oh, ugh. That heavy heavy humidity. Awful. It’s more humid today again and of course hot. I feel like a melted fudgesicle. Formless and sticky and stuck to the ground. Yes, it makes sense to plan them out ahead of time. I’ve done that before, but when I do I always end up “pre-empting” them as stuff comes up hahah.
I miss being more engaged with my blog. I used to enjoy interrupting my scheduled programming but somehow in the last year or so, I’ve been so off-track. I hate to say this, but I think I probably had a lot more downtime at my job and that made blogging a lot easier.
Yes, I used to also. Now I am always stressing to keep up with everything!
Social media is designed to make us feel like we have to keep up with everything, but that’s impossible. And not fun.
I think you are right. Maybe that is why it is probably addictive!
Oh, indeed it is, considering its past my bedtime and I’m in bed going through my social media feeds 😉
LOL
I like the photo–especially the shadows. More liminal spaces? 🙂
The poem is wonderful. It can imagine some classically trained actress declaiming it–yet it makes you really feel the heat and the air that is too thick even to allow fruit to drop.
Ah, yes, liminality within liminality! Merril, the image of the actress you speak of reading the poem is so perfect, and just what I can imagine of H.D. reading it herself. Not what I imagined, but theatrical, yes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIYKyP6LiHg
Interesting. I sort of imagined Judi Dench or Helen Mirren. 🙂
Yeah. All the photos of HD show her to have been a classical beauty, and that voice doesn’t go with those photos.