two kinds of skein
but i'm looking at milkweed
my camera and me are limited
we focus on one thing
and then another shouts to us
but we become confused
enamoured
aroused
full of wonder
until i look up and see it:
landskein
this lovely word,
landskein,
is exactly what i've been seeing
for a long time
in robert macfarlane's book
about lost or disappearing words
related to landscape
LANDMARKS
he mentions some new words
honeyfur, slogger, wolfsnow, sutering.
landskein is "the braid of blue horizon lines in hill country on a hazy day"
exactly.
the word was first spoken by "a painter in the hebrides"
and it is
like hortus siccus
a word for a new body of work.
landskein.
i am making landskeins in a landskein.
the work began and the word found me, beautiful.
i am also finding seeds.
i'm guessing it's dogbane
but i need to check.
it arrived in my living room
and took up residence on my warp.
a new flower for me--
still looking this one up
but notice it has those odd stems
tiny and bold.
i have been in a struggle with emotion and exhaustion,
so
the weeping of spent daylily blossoms
has properties i've tried to catch
on spun lokta
another landskein.
and today,
another pot of contact prints.