Time
Capsule is a series featuring the writing of Robert Gibbons
At the Origin
Exactly a week before equinox, keeping track, sun surprised us this morning after weekend clocks pushed forward. Light reaching for darkness inside ourselves. Right in front of us the winged spindle, considered an invasive species from Asia here in Maine, & especially radiant in autumn, then more aptly named, burning bush, is a target for birds trying to survive merciless winter. Just yesterday a band of hearty house sparrows attacked it in a way I hadn’t seen before: red berries already consumed, the birds resorted to eating leaf buds, leaving stalks bare. We’ve set yellow & purple tulips in a vase before the bay window looking out over the fallow shrub trying to keep spring near at hand. Next to that: a letter from a friend; an old postcard of the Tour Eiffel; & a small photograph sent from Joe Schuyler of a snow-laden tree in Madison Square Park with cardinal perched on a branch between tree & Flatiron Building across the way. Birds themselves today help get at the origin of “experience” with Latin roots, ex-periri, meaning “the traversing of a danger,” hoping in weeks & months to come, we might do the same.
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