Inyo Rising

The narrating voices that, entwined or in juxtaposition, tell us about the universe are only two. Light and gravity. In the story that emerges, the invisible holds sway. What we can observe is simply an exception.
—Ersilia Vaudo

 

But man cannot master this lesson, 
the lesson of stone: 
he tumbles, his body crumbles, 
his word and voice unravel.

Fire, water and tree 
steal themselves:
dying, they seek a mineral body 
and find the road to glory: 
steady, the stone shines 
like a hard new rose.
—Pablo Neruda  

I want the light 
locked inside to awaken:
crystalline flower,
wake as I do:

eyelids raise the curtain 
of endless earthen time 
until deeply buried eyes 
flash clear enough again 
to see their own clarity.
—Pablo Neruda

NOTES
—Top photo, to honor Earth Day:  Earthrising beyond Moon, from Artemis II, NASA, March 2026

—Photos: Petroglyphs on a rock wall, Owens Valley, Inyo County CA, March 2026, Douglas Beauchamp
—Ersilia Vaudo (Astrophysicist with  the European Space Agency), from The Story of Astrophysics in Five Revolutions (2025, trans from Italian by Vanessa Di Stefano)
—Pablo Neruda (1904-1973, Nobel 1971), from Stones of the Sky.
1970/Spanish, 1987/English trans by James Nolan, Copper Canyon Press

ASTROLITHICS

Galaxies originate from quantum fluctuations in the primordial universe, imprinted as traces in the cosmic background radiation. The tiny ripples of matter, which were stretched to enormous dimensions during the inflation, were the seeds of the subsequent formation of astronomical structures, shaped by gravitational attraction.
—Ersilia Vaudo

It probably started in poetry; almost everything does.
—Raymond Chandler

It is the rock where tranquil must adduce
Its tranquil self, the main of things, the mind,

The starting point of the human and the end,
That in which space itself is contained, the gate
To the enclosure, day, the things illumined

By day, night and that which night illumines,
Night and its midnight-minting fragrances,
Night’s hymn of the rock, as in a vivid sleep.
—Wallace Stevens

NOTES
—Ersilia Vaudo in The Story of Astrophysics in Five Revolutions (2025, trans Italian)
—Raymond Chandler in "The Simple Art of Murder" (1944)
—Wallace Stevens from the poem "The Rock" (1954)

—Photos: Douglas Beauchamp, Lassen County CA
—Below:  Wallace Stevens from the poem  “Prologues To What Is Possible” (1954)
 

The metaphor stirred his fear. The object with which he was compared

Was beyond his recognizing. By this he knew that likeness of him extended

Only a little way, and not beyond, unless between himself
 

And things beyond resemblance there was this and that intended to be recognized,

The this and that in the enclosures of hypotheses

On which men speculated in summer when they were half asleep.

Metamorphosis

The Past Parts Per Million

Soaring we imagine

Seeing far we think possible

The slightest movement

Sweeping wings precise

The scheme of leaves

Of fur

Of feather

Later the beak

The bones

The earth of air

We imagine

Soaring

The Now Parts Per Million

The Future Parts Per Million

The Ghostling Parts Per Million

The Rebirth of The Unknowable

Divided by The 8 billion

Becoming

The Vanishingly Small Parts Per 

The Ten Thousand Things

NOTE

On November 14 2022 the human population of This One Earth arrived at 8 billion; since January 2022, a net increase of 60 million (Births minus Deaths).

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

Dome

Looking in

Seeing with figurations enfolding place, time. 

How boundary dissolves between seer, seen.

Was there once such a boundary?

Such wondering will get us no where.

Stone dome, base of basalt rim. Basin-and-Range country, near what-is-now the boundary - as imagined - between Oregon and Nevada.

(click photos to enlarge)

The Shield

Of old was the age | when Ymir lived;
Sea nor cool waves | nor sand there were;
Earth had not been, | nor heaven above,
But a yawning gap, | and grass nowhere.

The sun, the sister | of the moon, from the south

Her right hand cast | over heaven's rim;
No knowledge she had | where her home should be,
The moon knew not | what might was his,
The stars knew not | where their stations were.

In front of the sun | does Svalin stand,
The shield for the shining god;
Mountains and sea | would be set in flames
If it fell from before the sun.

NOTES

ABOVE

Three stanzas from The Poetic Edda: Vǫluspá 3rd and 5th stanzas; Grímnismál stanza 38.  The Poetic Edda: Translated from the Icelandic with an Introduction and Notes by Henry Adams Bellows (1923). Bellows notes: 

-Vǫluspá 3: Ymir: the giant out of whose body the gods made the world; Yawning gap: this phrase, "Ginnunga-gap," is sometimes used as a proper name. 

-Grímnismál 38:  Shield: the shield Svalin ("Cooling") that stands in front of the sun. Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetic_Edda

Paintings: Ink on Rice paper / Douglas Beauchamp / From the deep archives (ciick on image to enlarge)

BELOW

—Brilliant Earth  https://www.brilliantearth.com/about-brilliant-earth/

—Poem by Jean Valentine, To the Black Madonna of Chartres, in Growing Darkness, Growing Light (1997)

Friend or no friend, 

darkness or light, 

vowels or consonants, 

water or dry land,

anything more from you now

is just gravy

—just send me down forgiveness, send me down

bearing myself a black cupful of light.

To behold the dawn of the universe

Webb will always face Earth’s night side to keep its infrared detectors as frigid as possible. … At 1 million miles away, the Webb Space Telescope is more than four times as distant as the moon.—APNews, January 24 2022

And if the Further Heaven— 

Be Beautiful as they prepare 

For Those who worship Them— 

It is too difficult a Grace— 

To justify the Dream—

—Emily Dickinson

                    And the Earth keeps up her
dancing and she is neither perfect nor exactly in time.
She is one of us.

And she loves the dance for what it is. So does the Sun who calls the Earth beloved. And praises her with light.

—Joy Harjo

Photos Malheur County, SE Oregon, Douglas Beauchamp

NOTES

The OTHER Side: Of Signalings and Metaphors

—The telescope was launched from French Guiana on Christmas.

—Besides making stellar observations, Webb will scan the atmospheres of alien worlds for possible signs of life.

—The primary mirror has 18 hexagonal segments, each the size of a coffee table

APNews: New space telescope reaches final stop million miles out. Marcia Dunn, Jan 24 2022. https://apnews.com/article/nasa-james-webb-telescope-arrives-space-9ea15e4bddaead131d4fcb6b07c53529

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/

—Joy Harjo from her poem In Praise of Earth in How We Became Human (2002)

—Emily Dickinson’s poem:

I reckon—when I count it all— 

First—Poets—Then the Sun— 

Then Summer—Then the Heaven of God— 

And then—the List is done— 

But, looking back—the First so seems 

To Comprehend the Whole— 

The Others look a needless Show— 

So I write—Poets—All— 

Their Summer—lasts a Solid Year— 

They can afford a Sun 

The East—would deem extravagant— 

And if the Further Heaven— 

Be Beautiful as they prepare 

For Those who worship Them— 

It is too difficult a Grace— 

To justify the Dream—