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| The stone voices of the land. |
Saturday, April 30, 2011
The Stone Voices of the Land
There is a saying in Brome County that you can harvest 3 crops of stones a year. Perhaps one of the reasons for the stone walls that once marked the country side and are now disappearing into the land. Our forebears were patient and sturdy folk clearing this land again and again. John and I have taken a different approach and left the largest stones where they were, and where they have become the stone people. Sometimes I think they are out there as our guardians or sentinels, sometimes they are just having fun, talking and laughing among themselves. After watching the wedding yesterday, I was reminded again of the power of stone. The voices rising in the descants of the hymns, the vaulted stone ceiling holding the sound, then the sound slipping down the walls. The spoken words, so clear and powerful, voice using the rhythms and cadence of the words in all their integrity. And the stone which made it all possible.
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Oh! The stories your stone sentinels have to tell. To have those in your garden is a gift.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who paints the most amazing cairns. Her's have a life of their own. When the light is right, usually as the sun is setting, they dance and sing, whisper and giggle at shared stories...
Take a look:
http://susanmakara.com/drupal/category/image-galleries/stones
Liz - what a fabulous opening line - I love it! But I truly love and appreciate the people, guardians, folk you have made around your block. They seem so friendly and caring - they would be good spirits to have around. I think I would talk to them if hey were on my block! Go well, F
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer, thanks so much for the link to your friends site, love what she said about getting obsessed with stones, I know the feeling. Years ago a friend sent me a postcard from Turkey that had stone stacks that were incredibly similar. Another mark making tradition that crosses time and continents.
ReplyDeleteHi Fiona, Thanks so much and have to tell that the title of the blog is from a favourite poem of Margaret Atwood's called "Resurrection". Years ago she gave me permission to use it in a piece I was working on , but I don't know if it would be OK to reprint it here. Here is a link
http://www.lizdavidsonartist.com/English%20video/lizdavidsonresur.html
and you are so right about the stone people, they are the best company!
i like these people, guardians, tricksters or ancestors... i like that you have used the old walls to make new beings. i have walls here sinking. i like yours, playing. noticing.
ReplyDeleteHi Velma, so glad you like these stone people/guardians too. They were in the lawn and J was always hitting their tops with the lawn mover, so that one day, in a time long ago, we had a friend pull them out with his tractor. Rather a large surprise and moving them seem impossible, so we left them where they were and where they stand now keeping watch and or company.
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