awake

RESIDENCY, day 2

/ janpriddyoregon / 4 Comments

It is the middle of the night after the second day of the Pacific University MFA program residency. So far: five crafts talks and two faculty readings, but I skipped the second student reading last night in hopes of getting a better night’s sleep. [That last is not going well. I should not be awake.] Yesterday, I ran in the morning, napped twice, and so much has come on so quickly, I feel simultaneously sated and drained, inspired and exhausted.

I should know what this sweet-smelling tree is, but I don’t. (Apricot Irving tells me it’s a Lindon tree—we both stood under it this morning and breathed!) I stopped during my cooldown walk to enjoy the scent. There is also lavender and butterfly bush, drifts of roses, and my one of my favorite native ground covers, kinnickkannick. Even now I remember the scientific name Arctostapholus urvaursi [though I may have spelled it incorrectly] because it is as charming as its “common” name. And so many trees! If I know those two trees are redwoods, does that make them different from the Western red cedar, the Douglas firs and hemlocks? All those lives I learned in college to name in Latin. Ursula unnamed the animals, and perhaps the trees, too, might discard the names we’ve chosen and have proper names for themselves. Elephants might name themselves as a group “the great ones” “those who wander” “the live long and prosper people”, since they call to one another by name. I am only amazed that anyone is surprised.
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