A whole other land

Exploring, discovering and mapping a land is a fascinating process. We might think of maps as constructed, drawn, or laid over the land. But with these children it's as if they seep up like water through the ground. When Cody said he was going to find secret water did we really believe him? Did we think it existed beyond his imagination? And yet here it is making itself visible -- making us realise that the land we are exploring and narrating sits on top of a whole other land, subterranean, that shares with ours a single, continuous, touchable surface.

from Ways into Hinchingbrooke Country Park by Deb Wilenski and Caroline Wending of Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination.


Image: Revolving House by Paul Klee (1921)

"The more I listened...the more each note seemed sweeter than before"

No matter what I learn and how little I know, I will never give up the chance to make music together with the birds. To wing it, so to speak, and wait for what will cheep in return. Like all art, bird song works best when we let it play on. Like science, it is built on the music of endless previous generations, still evolving into new sounds, The music made the questions begin, but no answer will erase the gift of the song, some simple offering from human to animal and back.

from Why Birds Sing by David Rothenberg (2005)


Birds in Warped Time II by Somei Sato.

The title of the post is from The Progress of Rhyme by John Clare