More treasures

I have unearthed a stash of transparencies and begun to copy and download them onto computer. There is no end to this process: copy, download, save, print, copy, save, in an endless dance with technology. One day, soon maybe, it will become someone else's problem - or not.

Images of Gideon tear at my heart. I love the spring but his birthday is in early March, and times have changed. Here are some words from a poem of passing, by Wislawa Szymborska:-

"I don't reproach the spring for starting up again
I can't blame it for doing what it must year after year
I know that my grief will not stop the green.
The grass blade may bend
but only in the wind.

It doesn't pain me to see that clumps of alder above the water have something to rustle with again.
I take note of the fact that the shore of a certain lake is still - as if you were living - as lovely as before.
I don't resent the view for its vista of a sun-dazzled bay.
I am even able to imagine some non-us sitting at this moment on a fallen birch trunk.

I don't require changes from the surf, now diligent, now sluggish, obeying not me.
I expect nothing from the depths near the woods, first emerald, then sapphire, then black.

I survived you by enough, and only enough,
to contemplate from afar."

Wislawa Szymborska  (1923-2012) Poems New and Collected Poems 1957-1997

Gideon's treasures

I've made a start.
 I have always been good at  bringing order to chaos - it was probably the basis of my professional career - but this is so close to the bone. Still, there have been some treasures unearthed. I am attaching Gideon's gloriously made-up postcard from his college trip to the USA.  And remember, this is pre-Donald. Here's a sample of the text:

"I am living in a house with people who have just come straight out of the jungle -  and failed auditions for 'Boy Meets World'. Save me please, God. The music I am being force-fed makes Alanis Morisette a welcome form of entertainment"

(Blogmeister's Note: I shall try to catch up on the Basquiat movie. I am against widespread graffiti and would happily throttle Banksy for promoting so much visually depressing harm in exchange for so little inspirational good.  As for David Bowie - don't get me 'started. But then there's Hockney - my main man!)

Anniversaries - The Tenth Year

March 3rd is the date of Gideon's birthday and 11th October is the day he died, in 2008. Another year will have slipped by, the pain of his loss no worse, and no better. Some physical connections remain: family photographs, snippets of sound, his lovely artworks, animation with Shynola, the company he helped to establish and grow. And his clothes, his many, many books, his writings - personal stuff, maybe not meant for others to see? And a collection of small things; toy cars, robots, Japanese bits and bobs ( he loved Japan). And so many Cds and photos he took himself, all to be saved on computer. And then - what? I cannot leave these things to gather dust for ever but the pain of going through them will be hard - touching him again so uselessly.........