My final piece of Americana video poetry once again celebrating the Ancients of the Bristlecone pines but this time in a small stand in Great Basin National Park, eastern Nevada. Wheeler Peak is the highest mountain rising out from the desert in the Snake Range. Prometheus was a living member of a population of Bristlecone pine trees growing near the tree line on the lateral moraine in the corrie of the former glacier below Wheeler Peak. In the 1960's it was felled by a student for research purposes and it has subsequently been assessed as being just under 5,000 years old when it was felled and therefore the oldest known non cloned organism. It was named Prometheus after the mythological figure who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man.In this poem I consider the appropriateness of the name given to the tree as its life was stolen in passing its knowledge onto humans.
video poetry
Ancients
The Methuselah is the oldest known living tree at 4,854 years. I first heard about the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest from one of the participants of the Landscapes of the Mind Group. These ancient trees inspired his transformational moment and I totally understand why. They are located high in the White Mountains in Inyo County California set against a backdrop of the Sierra Nevada range. They are great twisted caramalised sculptures eking out an existence in this hostile environment, with a growing season of only 45 days a year . Here the science of dendrochronology was founded and still continues to inform us of using the growth rings of the living as well as dead trees ( some are over 12,000 years old) to determine climate change through history as well as help date archaeological sites.
Tonopah
Made famous to me by a Little Feat song, 'Willin', that takes me back to my teens. Another boom and bust mining town in Nevada which had more success for a few than many others did. The legacy is the Mizpah saloon still on the main route plus the mining park to the rear of the town. At the feet of the old workings are the remnant shacks of the original town and its miners. Now it is more known as a halfway house between the gambling mecca's of Las Vegas and Reno plus of course the nuclear testing range on its doorstep.
Rushed Fever in Death Valley
The astonishing detritus left behind from previous centuries shows the landscape changes endured and still enduring from small to large scale mining activities that led to fevered rushes of thousands coming for the lure of gold and silver. Whilst its activities left terrible scars it also is a reminder of the harsh conditions and loneliness borne by so many
Random Motion
This work was created when in response to travelling in Baxter State Park, Maine, the end of the Appalachian Trail and a truly spectacular fall experience. Butterflies as a metaphor for autumn works well - their colour, beauty and a flight pattern of random motion is reminiscent of falling autumn leaves. They have a short lifespan as do the seasons seem to as I get older.
Two art works exchange aphorisms
A series examining artworks in the environment and their relationship with people and more importantly with each other. What do they talk about when facing each other? Like these two in the grounds the the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art ( Mod Two) :-
Two Two-Way Mirrored Parallelograms Joined with One Side Balanced Spiral Welded Mesh by Dan Graham; and
-There will be no miracles here by Nathan Coley
I imagined them being quite assertive about the importance of themselves and their meaning in the world
A Hidden Land
The second video piece from the Landscapes of the Mind project led by BGS on the broader Landscape Decisions Programme between 2020-22. The aim is to explore how we can bridge creative and evidence-based decision-making about landscape working with a group of scientists ( geologists, oceanographers, hydrologists, archaeologists) and creatives ( poets, artists and dancers). The outputs include both written evidence on Transformational Moments and a public exhibition scheduled October 2022 of the creative aspects of which two of my video pieces created for the project will be shown – Your Beat and A Hidden Land
Without beginning or end
Lines composed at the siting of Richard Long's outdoor sculpture MacDuff's Circle at Mod 2 Edinburgh ( National Museum of Modern Art). I was struck by the triangle that connected 3 very different circles at its location - looking across from the perfect circle ( without beginning or end) of the sculpture connecting with the formal classical monument of James Buchanan in the adjacent Deans Cemetery and then the immediacy of the mature Copper Beech tree on its rounded grass mound.
Lost Dreams
The sound of lawn mowers droning and watching weeping willows trailing fingers in sunshine is evocative of long childhood summers. Looking at the watercolours of Sarah Knox, particularly her work of Lost Worlds, Dawyck Botanic Gardens 2021 (https://www.sarahknoxgallery.co.uk/#/lost-worlds/ ) bought back this memory of one of my mothers dreams for our family garden.
Coruisk
Loch Coruisk lies beneath the fortress of the Black Cuillin of Skye - an unnerving and overpowering presence. A shattered, ancient landscape overlain with myths and much weather in which a human is an intruder.
New Year Dinner
I am delighted that Poetry Scotland 103 has accepted my poem for publication and in celebration I created video to accompany the poem about a brazen Pine Marten at New Year. The soundtrack is a night flying Little Grebe with a few Tawny Owls for company.
The Rhinns Complex
Everything on Islay seems flighty - from nervous sheep, scattering brown hares, endlessly lifting geese and a very anxious wind blowing from all directions - as if everything has a need for counselling. The only things that seem stable are the rocks where they connect with the earths crust. This geographical area hosts a geological phenomena known as the Rhinns Complex. The only part of Islay that doesn't seem to have a complex.
Frenchman's Creek
Inspired by the violent coastline of Cornwall combined with its beautiful and mysterious inland creeks. A video poem exploring how a sense of time and place can be can shift our perceptions between centuries. The past always has echoes in the present. A touch of the Daphne du Maurier.
Hunkered Down
In Taynish Woods of Argyll - the winter seems to batter relentlessly in endless waves of wind and rain. Despite this there is incredible beauty in the colours of this season with the rust of bracken, emerald of moss, sage green of lichen carpeting the trees with an alternative foliage and the deep plum of old leaf litter. Even the wind is a source of enjoyment watching and listening to Ravens do their amazing tricks surfing the breeze and flying flipside over.
Seasonal surf
Watching weather moods and changing musicality of the seasons of Scotland's coastline throughout the seasons.
A lockdown of mist
Mid December, west coast Scotland enters in own version of lockdown. Everything is a hazy shadow of its real self - half in this world and half in the next. A rare moment of brightness to realise its an inversion with the sun pressing down on the heavy blanket of mist. The gone.
Storm Barra
Storm Barra picking up its wrath at Kirkinner, Dumfriesshire in the Forest. The trees are about 70 years old and whippy enough to be able to dance to the tune of the wind. It’s a beautiful spectacle looking at this avenue, with a spilt gold path of beech leaves below. Its howling with alarming sounds of tree knuckles crashing and splintering all around. Nearby crazy nodding synchronised reeds as the storm water slaps the shore angrily.
Another Life
Inspired by open water swimmers who seem to be able to plunge themselves into below body temperatures. I have tried twice to swim at the height of summer in Scotnish, Argyll encased in protective wetsuit with snorkel and goggles and lasted about 1 minute both times.
Safe Haven
Trying to capture the anxiety that sailors must feel when needing to find safety when weather conditions turn - especially when the closest is already a crowded space jostling with other boats. Anxiety can continue if its only an anchor hold and through the night they are the mercy of that slim thread.
Orkney Stories 8 - The Earl's Palace, Kirkwall
The final in this Orkney Series after my visit the autumn of 2020. In the heart of Viking medieval Kirkwall is the Earl's Palace with a dark and grim history. The remains are set within a serene woodland square but still permeates a sense of this brooding story.