May
31
Yet another
Yet another
May 2010
May
30
Ice Pond – Frances Dowling Vaughan
ICE POND
1
In early morning when the sun
lights up last night’s beads of dew,
all the way to the pond I walk
through a show of spiders’ lacey art
hanging from branches of the spruce.
2
Once we watched how the crew rebuilt the boardwalk
over the marsh grass and cattails beside the brook,
how they pieced together bright lengths of wood;
summer after summer silvering as our hair.
3
Each August a fleet of dragonflies
come out to sun
at the west edge of the walk;
I’ve dreamed of flying off
in a tiny brown airplane
banded with logo in bright royal blue.
4
A small boy tosses crumbs from a paper bag.
Eiders crisscross the pond
and a checkered pattern
glides slowly over the water.
5
Like the blackcrowned night heron
I have stood silent,
eyeing the slender poles of white birches
dipped in the water.
It is enough to stand here, even without a catch.
6
Here’s where the herring gulls
come up to bathe
and drink fresh water;
how smart they look
at suppertime.
7
Cedar waxwings ornament the tree
and a holiday spirit courses through me.
8
The pond can swallow the full moon
and give back tiny stars.
9
A low fog covers the sleeping pond
and in the morning the sun lifts the cover,
all the little creatures begin to gurgle, bubble up.
10
I have looked into its depths;
it’s always your face reflected.
11
Swallows veer from the cold dark
of the abandoned ice house,
mindless of cracked ridgepole,
the slump of siding, its slow settling back to earth.
Frances Downing Vaughan
May
23
Island Cottage – Marjorie Mir
ISLAND COTTAGE
for Frances Vaughan
Over the years and many visits,
since no one was at home,
imagination was my entry,
allowed me morning coffee
on the small front deck,
the privilege of touching down lightly,
lingering there.
Today an invitation came
from the poet
whose cottage it happens to be.
Inside, it is trig and trim
as a small ship’s cabin.
Paintings give life to its whiteness
and, from every window,
we look out on the leeward sea.
Today, dream and reality
have met most happily.
I thank you for making it so.
Marjorie Mir
May
22
UMaine prof on Monhegan wind test site, offshore windpower’s future & the end of land-based windmilling. Audio.
At a Maine Wind forum May 20, 2010 at the Rockport Opera House, locations as varied as Ragged Mountain, Vinalhaven, Monhegan and waters 20 to 50 miles offshore were discussed. The key speaker University of Maine’s Habib Dagher, PhD, leader of the DeepCwind Consortium said that the conflicts over the siting and effects of land-based and nearshore windfarming on health, the pursuit of happiness and the natural environment are serious and insoluble sources of social conflict.
Instead, Dagher told his audience, deepwater floating windstations 20 to 50 miles offshore will be much more powerful and reliable, and won’t harass their own consumers & wildlife with flicker, noise and infrasound. The DeepCwind Consortium has received tens of million of dollars to lead the nation in deepwater offshore windpower R&D. Listen to podcasts of he and other speakers and audience participants below.
Other topics at the forum: a plan for a windfarm on the Camden Hills’ Ragged Mountain, Island Institute on midwifing community wind on Vinalhaven and on its efforts to raise enthusiasm for onland windmills on Monhegan, Swans Island and Frenchboro,Des Fitzgerald on his novel deepwater windturbine device and more. A lively Q&A session, too!
Click Here for Part One of the forum (1 hr) Introduction , Senator Chris Rector; Richard Podolsky environmental consultant; Susan Pude, Island Institute/Maine Community Wind
Click Here for Part 2 of the Forum: (45 minutes) Dr Dagher’s presentation on Monhegan and deepwater offshore windpower
Click Here For Part Three of the Forum ( 50 minutes) Des Fitzgerald, Ragged Mountain proposal; Question & Answer session. Scott Dickerson of MCHT -speaking on his own behalf (1 minute) was not pleased by the Ragged Mtn windfarm plan; why not, he asked send the investment and talent toward over-the-horizon offshore windpower.
