Black Canyon

Black Canyon wildfire in early July was sparked by lightning on the Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge. Luckily contained at 1500 acres. Recalling, camping a few years ago with friends near Black Canyon. The July fire was further south than Black Canyon proper and rock art on a rough low ridge. (Black Canyon - Lorings’ site 151)  With good fortune, a stony walkabout, guided by indigenous Mule Deer, may reveal an outcrop of rough stone which holds forth petroglyphs. 

 

The Lorings: "The most unique design resembles a large elaborate lizard. 19  inches high by 12  inches wide, with concentric circles for head, feet, and  tail."

 

CODA
Lewis Hyde tells this story:  Said John Cage to the painter Philip Guston, "When you start working, everybody is in your studio—the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, you own ideas—all are there. But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you're lucky, even you leave."

Taking this to Black Canyon, let's say as you walkabout, your ideas start leaving, one by one, and...

Ogham Stones

 The real constitution of each thing is accustomed to hide itself. —Heraclitus, frag. 123

Standing forth wondering what does this stone remember?  How has the stone itself forgotten. Ogham is an ancient Irish alphabet carved vertically on stones. This early Christian practice traveled in the 5th-7th centuries to about a hundred known places in western Wales, Cornwall and Scotland.

Edge notches and discrete incised lines inscribe memory, as memorial, as boundary.  This 6th century. Ogham stone (above) stands next to this 10th century Celtic Cross (below) cornered by the wall of St. Brynach's Church in Nevern, western Wales.

Looking on, thinking, we need Time to remember, but Time does not need us to forget.

St Llawddog's churchyard, Cilgerran, Wales, an Ogham stone (right) stands with grave-slabs.

Four close-ups of the Cilgerran stone, weathered Ogham notchings are inscribed and can be discerned along the edge. Below, on the dark face of the stone, is a Latin inscription restating the Ogham inscription.

The stone and the rose -- all is transitory, all in the now of presence.  The chalked markings present a re-remembering, perhaps a ritual of forgiving. The Sacranus Stone  stands in the entry way of the parish church of St Thomas the Martyr in the village of St Dogmaels. The church, on the grounds of the Norman abbey now in ruins, holds several inscribed stones connected to an earlier 5th-century Christian monastery.

Inscribing is holy. Words are holy.  The photograph is holy.  All drumming down the halls of the moment called time.

NOTE
Photos: May 2025, Western Wales.  With gratitude to T&B and Jackson for their spirited goodwill. The people and places ever kind and patient with the curious and lucky traveler. Especially helpful, the mother of the Vicar at St Brynach’s, and Sarah with her generous welcoming to St Llawddog’s Church, as it happened, on the 80th anniversary celebration of VE (Victory Europe) Day, May 8 2025, photo below.  -DB