Comments on: Lovely As a Tree: All That Remains http://telesle.net/blog/2006/03/16/lovely-as-a-tree-all-that-remains/ Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:45:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Tim Lesle http://telesle.net/blog/2006/03/16/lovely-as-a-tree-all-that-remains/comment-page-1/#comment-27 Tim Lesle Mon, 20 Mar 2006 10:40:36 +0000 http://telesle.net/blog/?p=47#comment-27 Echoing Ozymandias is a happy accident. But I do find stories of hubris to be interesting, which Shelley would have us believe Mr. O had in excess. It is that same hubris which invests so many of the subjects of Cadillac Desert, making it a bracing read. Funny how the book and poem make one wax eschatological. <br/><br/>I haven't read Brautigan, still. But that's a good quote and, even with the personality-infusing flophouse analogy, it makes the San Francisco Bay sound positively Edenic. I'm glad you like the photo. I hope my tree is in a better place, as well, one where the presence of kiwis is more pleasant than puzzling. Echoing Ozymandias is a happy accident. But I do find stories of hubris to be interesting, which Shelley would have us believe Mr. O had in excess. It is that same hubris which invests so many of the subjects of Cadillac Desert, making it a bracing read. Funny how the book and poem make one wax eschatological.

I haven’t read Brautigan, still. But that’s a good quote and, even with the personality-infusing flophouse analogy, it makes the San Francisco Bay sound positively Edenic. I’m glad you like the photo. I hope my tree is in a better place, as well, one where the presence of kiwis is more pleasant than puzzling.

]]> By: will http://telesle.net/blog/2006/03/16/lovely-as-a-tree-all-that-remains/comment-page-1/#comment-25 will Sat, 18 Mar 2006 23:23:34 +0000 http://telesle.net/blog/?p=47#comment-25 Yes, "nothing beside remains," as the poet said. The title of this entry, the echo of Shelley, and the photographs somehow form a heartening coda to the (partly) accidental death and dismemberment of Tim's tree. It all suggests to me a time, say, 5000 years from now, probably less, when our entire civilization, or civilzation of any kind, will be gone, and California will be returned to a state something like that in which Drake found it, and the northern coastline will fall back into its temporarily disrupted rhythm of simply being, in Richard Brautigan's words, "that million year old flop house for otters and seals." In the meantime, released from the vagaries of winter coastal weather systems, Tim's tree has departed for another, more temperate garden. I particularly like the photo of the saw-dusty patch with the municipal hazard marker over it. Yes, “nothing beside remains,” as the poet said. The title of this entry, the echo of Shelley, and the photographs somehow form a heartening coda to the (partly) accidental death and dismemberment of Tim’s tree. It all suggests to me a time, say, 5000 years from now, probably less, when our entire civilization, or civilzation of any kind, will be gone, and California will be returned to a state something like that in which Drake found it, and the northern coastline will fall back into its temporarily disrupted rhythm of simply being, in Richard Brautigan’s words, “that million year old flop house for otters and seals.” In the meantime, released from the vagaries of winter coastal weather systems, Tim’s tree has departed for another, more temperate garden. I particularly like the photo of the saw-dusty patch with the municipal hazard marker over it.

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