Iris DeMent: In the Spirit of Hopkins?

Some say that they're comin' back in a garden, bunch of carrots and little sweet peas.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

Let The Mystery Be - Iris DeMent H.Q. - YouTube   

Hurrahing in Harvest by Gerard Manley Hopkins

The First Stanza:

Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty the stooks rise
Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour
Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?  

The Closure:

These things, these things were here and but the beholder
Wanting; which two when they once meet,
The heart rears wings bold and bolder
And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his feet. 

Ds

Everybody's wonderin' what and where they all came from.
Everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go when the whole thing's done.
But no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

Some say once you're gone you're gone forever, and some say you're gonna come back.
Some say you rest in the arms of the Saviour if in sinful ways you lack.
Some say that they're comin' back in a garden, bunch of carrots and little sweet peas.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

Let The Mystery Be - Iris DeMent H.Q. - YouTube

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Ted Kooser, "An Epiphany"

I've mentioned epiphany a few times. Is Kooser right in thinking that's what's happening in his spider scene?

An Epiphany by Ted Kooser : The Poetry Foundation [poem] : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry.

Given Kooser’s talky voice, we might overlook his flirtation with rhyme. Now we have it, now we don’t. But with or without exact rhyme, we have the “r” and “l” sounds.

And rather than tie up everything—neatly and over-resolved—in the end, Kooser plays with those “r” sounds, ending on “finger” and “broken.” We can’t ignore the “r,” given the accumulation of the sound, but he slyly refuses to give us an exact rhyme, which would imply balance, order, peace, law, and justice as a conclusion, when in fact things are broken and the “me” is left alone at the end of a line, with no rhyming partner.

If there is an epiphany here, surely it has to do with “broken” things, and the speaker is alone with his understanding of that.


In the video below, the deer biz might be apropros of nothing, but I found it curiously interesting, understated, amusing, touching. Then, rather than re-running the Bambi pic, I figured some bison in the rain, near Corydon, Indiana, might be more interesting. I wonder if the restaurant makes them nervous.

That, in turn, has made me wonder if there's a thread here after all: spiders eat, bison eat, people eat. Everybody eats. Even Bambi. Welcome to Banjo Brain.

YouTube - Deer Calling Tips: Trail Grunt Sequence



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Two-Lane Roads

Soon enough, spring will feel real, even in the upper Midwest. Can you recommend any two-lane scenic routes in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania?

Here's one from me, a day's pleasure drive: in southeastern Ohio, take Rt. 78 from Woodsfield to to Glouster. I'd say take your time, but the road will insist upon that. As a footnote, how many are aware that parts of southeastern Ohio are included in Appalachia?

Consider staying at Burr Oaks State Park near Glouster or one of the other state park lodges (which are also present in Indiana and Kentucky). They are no longer a secret, but if you haven't tried one, you might consider it. They're a welcome change from chain motels on the interstates or pricier places in more glamorous resort areas. You're not as isolated as you could be if you backpacked, but you can find peace and quiet within a few steps of the lodges or cabins. Rooms and restaurants in the lodges tend to be at least average, compared to chains like Comfort Inns or Holiday Inns, though you'll pay a little extra for the scenery at the state parks.

I don't know how these spots fare financially, but they seem well-attended. So I've long wondered why Michigan and Pennsylvania don't create them. I've recently noticed that Georgia has a few, but I haven't tried them yet.