{"id":17287,"date":"2015-09-25T13:13:46","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T17:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=17287"},"modified":"2015-09-25T13:13:46","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T17:13:46","slug":"unfolding-into-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/unfolding-into-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Unfolding into Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a name=\"top\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/images\/webbtelescope_sunshieldunfolding.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/images\/webbtelescope_sunshieldunfolding_sm.jpg?ssl=1\" alt=\"Webb telescope: unfolding test\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"smalltext\"><em>[Image: Testing the unfolding of the James Webb Space Telescope&#8217;s sunshield (photo via NASA, 2014-07-10). Per the NASA site, the Webb telescope &#8220;will be a powerful time machine with infrared vision that will peer back over 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies forming out of the darkness of the early universe.&#8221; For a visualization of the complete unfolding of the telescope post-launch &#8212; all components, including the sunshield &#8212; see <a title=\"YouTube: 'James Webb Space Telescope Deployment In Detail' (NASA)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bTxLAGchWnA\" target=\"_blank\">this video<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"float: right;\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0e0UMFYx96M?rel=0\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"smalltext\"><em>[See <a href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/unfolding-into-time#note\">the note<\/a> at the foot of this post]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>From <em><a title=\"whiskey river: 'Poem for my Birthday,' by Lisel Mueller\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2015\/09\/poem-for-my-birthday-i-have-stopped.html\" target=\"_blank\">whiskey river<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Poem for My Birthday<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have stopped being the heroine<br \/>\nof my bad dreams. The melodramas<br \/>\nof betrayal and narrow escapes<br \/>\nfrom which I wake up grateful<br \/>\nfor an unexciting life<br \/>\nare starring my troubled young friend<br \/>\nor one of my daughters. I&#8217;m not the one<br \/>\nwho swims too far out to sea;<br \/>\nI am the one who waves from shore<br \/>\nvainly and in despair.<br \/>\nLife is what happens to someone else;<br \/>\nI stand on the sidelines and wring my hands.<br \/>\nStrange that my dreams should have accepted<br \/>\nthe minor role I&#8217;ve been cast in<br \/>\nby stories since stories began.<br \/>\nDoes that mean I have solved my life?<br \/>\nI&#8217;m still afraid in my dreams, but not for myself.<br \/>\nFear gets rededicated<br \/>\nwith a new stone that bears a needier name.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Lisel Mueller [<a title=\"Google Books: 'Waving from Shore: Poems,' by Lisel Mueller\" href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=5HTpqtNlrUAC&amp;pg=PA17#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<a title=\"whiskey river: Ted Kooser, on September\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2015\/09\/four-in-morning-cold-and-still-but-for.html\" target=\"_blank\">and<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Four in the morning, cold and still but for the buzz of my yard light as it talks to the one up the hill at my neighbor&#8217;s. Mine says it feels the earth spinning it out to the end of its post, like a drop of light that might at any instant shake off into the stars, but my neighbor&#8217;s says that&#8217;s nonsense, the typical thing you can expect to hear from a poet&#8217;s lamp: Nothing on earth can feel that centrifugal force. As for me, I know how light on their legs the fat mice are as they carry the dog food, nugget by nugget, feeling the warmth spin away from the earth, and how the trees are flushed at this time of the year with the effort of holding leaves. Oh, yes, there is a steady tug from the Milky Way, and I can feel my fingers lifting just a little away from these keys, not touching and then touching again, one tap and then another.<\/p>\n<p>So light I am, so light is my heart when I am up early, trying to write.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Ted Kooser [<a title=\"Google Books: 'The Wheeling Year: A Poet's Field Book,' by Ted Kooser\" href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=IAz4AwAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA61#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and (from the <a title=\"whiskey river's commonplace book: 'timelessness and nowhere'\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriverscommonplace.blogspot.com\/2006\/03\/timelessness-and-nowhere.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>commonplace book<\/em><\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>The Dead<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At night the dead come down to the river to drink.<br \/>\nThey unburden themselves of their fears,<br \/>\ntheir worries for us. They take out the old photographs.<br \/>\nThey pat the lines in our hands and tell our futures,<br \/>\nwhich are cracked and yellow.<br \/>\nSome dead find their way to our houses.<br \/>\nThey go up to the attics.<br \/>\nThey read the letters they sent us, insatiable<br \/>\nfor signs of their love.<br \/>\nThey tell each other stories.<br \/>\nThey make so much noise<br \/>\nthey wake us<br \/>\nas they did when we were children and they stayed up<br \/>\ndrinking all night in the kitchen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Susan Mitchell [<a title=\"Poetry 180 (Library of Congress): 'The Dead,' by Susan Mitchell\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/poetry\/180\/140.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Not from <em>whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Evening<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The light passes<br \/>\nfrom ridge to ridge,<br \/>\nfrom flower to flower&#8212;<br \/>\nthe hepaticas, wide-spread<br \/>\nunder the light<br \/>\ngrow faint&#8212;<br \/>\nthe petals reach inward,<br \/>\nthe blue tips bend<br \/>\ntoward the bluer heart<br \/>\nand the flowers are lost.<\/p>\n<p>The cornel-buds are still white,<br \/>\nbut shadows dart<br \/>\nfrom the cornel-roots&#8212;<br \/>\nblack creeps from root to root,<br \/>\neach leaf<br \/>\ncuts another leaf on the grass,<br \/>\nshadow seeks shadow,<br \/>\nthen both leaf<br \/>\nand leaf-shadow are lost.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(H. D. [<a title=\"Google Books: 'Selected Poems,' by Hilda Doolittle ('H.D.')\" href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=Id_EAgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA4#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This morning at 5:04, autumn arrived. In New York City as elsewhere, the natural year is winding down, and in just a few weeks, it will be winter. The changing of the seasons is an intricate process involving much more than the turning and falling of the leaves and the growing chill. But often in this city, we do not slow down to notice.<\/p>\n<p>We could see it all if we could just stand still.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Marielle Anzelone [<a title=\"New York Times (September 23, 2011): 'Autumn Unfolds in a Patch of Urban Forest,' by Marielle Anzelone\" href=\"http:\/\/cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/23\/autumn-unfolds-in-a-patch-of-urban-forest\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Fall<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Fall, falling, fallen. That&#8217;s the way the season<br \/>\nChanges its tense in the long-haired maples<br \/>\nThat dot the road; the veiny hand-shaped leaves<br \/>\nRedden on their branches (in a fiery competition<br \/>\nWith the final remaining cardinals) and then<br \/>\nBegin to sidle and float through the air, at last<br \/>\nSettling into colorful layers carpeting the ground.<br \/>\nAt twilight the light, too, is layered in the trees<br \/>\nIn a season of odd, dusky congruences&#8212;a scarlet tanager<br \/>\nAnd the odor of burning leaves, a golden retriever<br \/>\nLoping down the center of a wide street and the sun<br \/>\nSetting behind smoke-filled trees in the distance,<br \/>\nA gap opening up in the treetops and a bruised cloud<br \/>\nBlamelessly filling the space with purples. Everything<br \/>\nChanges and moves in the split second between summer&#8217;s<br \/>\nSprawling past and winter&#8217;s hard revision, one moment<br \/>\nPulling out of the station according to schedule,<br \/>\nAnother moment arriving on the next platform. It<br \/>\nHappens almost like clockwork: the leaves drift away<br \/>\nFrom their branches and gather slowly at our feet,<br \/>\nSliding over our ankles, and the season begins moving<br \/>\nAround us even as its colorful weather moves us,<br \/>\nEven as it pulls us into its dusty, twilit pockets.<br \/>\nAnd every year there is a brief, startling moment<br \/>\nWhen we pause in the middle of a long walk home and<br \/>\nSuddenly feel something invisible and weightless<br \/>\nTouching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air:<br \/>\nIt is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies;<br \/>\nIt is the changing light of fall falling on us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Edward Hirsch [<a title=\"Google Books: 'The Living Fire,' by Edward Hirsch\" href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=cB1GelxnSRYC&amp;pg=PA47#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"note\"><\/a>____________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>A note on the video:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a title=\"Lawrence English's site\" href=\"http:\/\/lawrenceenglish.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lawrence English<\/a> is a Brisbane, Australia-based musician, curator (Room 40 records), composer, and media artist. In 2009, Pound Ridge, NY abstract electronic label 12k released [English&#8217;s album] <em>A Colour For Autumn<\/em>&#8230; as the perfect accompaniment to Fall\u2019s merciful reappearance after a long, hot summer. The standout &#8220;Watching It Unfold,&#8221; brassy and bright, builds on subtle chord changes in a perfect realization of its literal-minded title. <em>A Colour For Autumn<\/em> is the perfect soundtrack for those who enjoy the transformation of the weather to crisp and clear, the changing of the leaves, and the wait for the onset of winter and its interior indulgences.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Max Burke [<a title=\"Visitation Rites: 'Sightings: Lawrence English, 'Watching It Unfold''\" href=\"http:\/\/www.visitation-rites.com\/2010\/09\/sightings-lawrence-english-watching-it-unfold\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>[<a href=\"#top\">back to top<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Image: Testing the unfolding of the James Webb Space Telescope&#8217;s sunshield (photo via NASA, 2014-07-10). Per the NASA site, the Webb telescope &#8220;will be a powerful time machine with infrared vision that will peer back over 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies forming out of the darkness of the early universe.&#8221; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[183,38,1393,95,74,5,36,251],"tags":[1019,1494,1987,2314,2491,3173,3620,4178,4179,4180,4181,4182,4183],"class_list":{"0":"post-17287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-everyday-life","7":"category-backwards","8":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","9":"category-science-medicine","10":"category-music","11":"category-06_writing","12":"category-reading","13":"category-poetry-writing_cat","14":"tag-time","15":"tag-nasa","16":"tag-edward-hirsch","17":"tag-lisel-mueller","18":"tag-ted-kooser","19":"tag-susan-mitchell","20":"tag-autumn","21":"tag-james-webb-space-telescope","22":"tag-h-d","23":"tag-hilda-doolittle","24":"tag-marielle-anzelone","25":"tag-lawrence-english","26":"tag-soundscape","27":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-4uP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17287"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17303,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17287\/revisions\/17303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}