February 26, 2010
Here is a meditation piece for shabbat. This carrier pigeon brings its HAPPY PURIM message to you one day early!
(c) quintan ana wikswo
It has travelled from a 20th century, war-torn Purim, on a day when the Allies were dropping carrier pigeons into France in an attempt to communicate with the struggling resistance movement. This is a Nazi bird, equipped with a little camera. I like to think that it became a bit smitten by matters of conscience, and defected to assist the French resistance. Ah, to develop those rolls of film…
The subject of doves and carrier pigeons has driven me to a dire (or even abject) state of obsession for the past two years. I have been photographing dovecotes all over the world, my favorite of which turns out also to have been Borges’ favorite: a crumbling dovecote on a ranch in the Pampas in Argentina.
When my friend MacKerrow pointed out the Ragdale dovecote this autumn, I was so completely stunned and besotted with it that I forgot to take photos.
Nonetheless, it remains inside my mind and photographs are not required for the forging of words.
I suspect that THANKS FOR THE DOVES will soon emerge from its nest as a rather intricate suite of pieces.
Until then, I have this early artifact to keep me warm inside the incubator.
Shabbat shalom, everyone. AND HAVE A HAPPY
.
Is this a flight of fancy, or a fancy of flight?
I need to photograph the dovecote that has been built by our newish neighbor at the end of what used to be a pasture — close to where one might find a bleached horse skeleton.
I can hear the doves cooing from the top of the hill on a quiet day. Maybe they are praying – for peace, or quiet.
Meanwhile, this inspires me to make some dovetails next week. Does that make my shop a kind of a dovecote?