Reading the book ‘Poems’ by Emily Dickinson. In the preface two of her friends describe how they found, perceived and eventually published (after her death) the poems. The description of their first perception is a poem on its own:
“In many cases these verses will seem to the reader like poetry torn up by the roots, with rain and dew and earth still clinging to them, giving a freshness and a fragrance not otherwise to be conveyed.”
As if you can feel, taste here poems from here. They are as original as the woman who wrote them. Straight from the Earth and written with the heart.
Inspiring, again and again, to stretch and challenge the openness and the boundaries of my own perception. Emily has a wide range of doors of perception.
Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime. The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson’s writing, it was not until after her death in 1886-when Lavinia, Emily’s younger sister, discovered her cache of poems-that the breadth of Dickinson’s work became apparent.
I am a fan of Emily, forever.
The colours of climate change
Following the Sustainable Development Goals, climate change is despite Covid-19 not forgotten. More so, the last is seen by scientists, managers and experts as an omen what we can expect when we keep disrupting the Earth ecosystem. Goal 13 is Climate Action: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. This goal has 5 targets:
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- Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.
- Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning.
- Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning.
- Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible.
- Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities.
My personal expression of climate change is displayed above. I imagined the canvas of our world as a chess board with 8*8 fields and estimated the relatively most hurt ecosystems due to this change: coral reef (Pantone Living Coral ) and tropical rainforest (Pantone Forest Biome).
Government (Pantone Imperial Blue) is in fact a tiny spot on the canvas because it is doing not that much to tackle or change course. Most of the public leaders are still in denial or have no idea how to come into action. And we as citizens are not active either and go on with daily life. Storm (Pantone Storm Gray) is coming.
It is a personal art impression – or maybe better: an expression of an impression – to remind me that we will loose precious life if we continue this way. The present myriad of life is still so abundant in coral reefs and tropical rainforests, we can hardly imagine.
If you have seen these ecosystems, you understand and fall in love immediately. And if this happens there is not turning back, you want to protect and want to stay it forever to be there. I am in love, still (it is actually since 1977, the year I met (my) Professor Roelof Oldeman and with him did my first discoveries in and of the forest).
I am a realist, not a pessimist. I hear you thinking. But I did my homework as Wageningen University ecologist. Believe me, storm is coming, if we keep sitting on our hands. Maybe this small (art) expression is a small contribution to one of the targets of this sustainable development goal.
The colours of climate change will change over time. The coral reef and rainforest colours will disappear over time. A lot of gray will come in and the tiny spots of goverment remain insignificant as they are now, I’m afraid. The driving political landscape is too dominant, too volatile and too focused on short term gains and profits. Remember I am not a pessimist, but a realist. The scientist in me remains. I like the colours. I hope they stay.
De mystiek van het woud
Jack Kruf
De mystiek van de 10 nachten, die ik in 1981 op mijn trektocht door het Zwarte Woud in het bos heb gebivakkeerd, heb ik figuurlijk maar eens ingelijst, omdat het verankerd is in mijn ziel. A once in a lifetime experience. Het was alsof ik oploste in het ecosysteem, werd ondergedompeld in de nachtelijke dynamiek van geluiden van het woud, rustend op de bedding (van mos) van Moeder Aarde.Nee, angst heb ik niet gehad. Ik kende de bossen op mijn duimpje. Ik was er thuis en wist ook welke dieren er leefden. Wolven waren lang niet meer gespot… Spannend, dat zeker wel. Vele jaren later las ik het boek van John Muir, Journeys in the Wilderness. Dat was thuiskomen.
Het gevoel van de wildernis is zo weer op te roepen, en daarmee de ervaring om mijzelf één met de natuur, ja, één met het universum te voelen.
Heel ver weg, over de verre heuvels en verscholen onder het zachte suizen van de wind door de hoge sparren is er de bewoonde wereld, ergens, daar waar mensen wonen. Alsof ik even geen deel uitmaak van de samenleving, maar een bosbewoner ben.
Soms, als ik in mijn nette pak met das moet aantreden bij een formeel treffen of optreden op een dichtbevolkte conferentie – mijn vader wist mij in deze staat treffend te duiden (hij kende mij immers als zijn broekzak) met een vermomd als heer – dan denk ik nog wel eens aan die momenten alleen in het diepe nachtelijke woud op de grens van Duitsland en Zwitserland.
Dan komen de woorden van John Muir zo weer binnen: “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” Die helderheid relativeert altijd de drukte en de hectiek, verschaft het comfort van het inzicht en houdt beide voeten op de grond, altijd. Tja, vermomd als heer, dat is een goeie. Nog steeds.
Kruf Huyssons 