tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20920681600580114362012-02-02T17:38:07.957-05:00GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.comBlogger9581100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-67480222820001552192011-03-31T00:01:00.001-04:002011-03-31T00:01:02.180-04:00

Jasper Francis Cropsey, Pool in the WoodsFor every man there is some spot on earth, I think, which he has pledged himself to return to, some day, because he was so happy there once. Even to long for it is holiday of a sort. These visits of revery may be all that he can pay it, for years, perhaps until his shade is free to haunt where it pleases. But some are lucky; some get back, and find it, to

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-54295545214381380012011-03-29T00:01:00.002-04:002011-03-29T00:01:01.522-04:00

Physicists say we are made of stardust. Intergalactic debris and far-flung atoms, shards of carbon nanomatter rounded up by gravity to circle the sun. As atoms pass through an eternal revolving door of possible form, energy and mass dance in fluid relationship. We are stardust, we are man, we are thought. We are story. — Glenda Burgess While trying to find some old documents on NC meteors, I did

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-62469253880784589302011-03-28T00:05:00.015-04:002011-03-28T00:49:53.645-04:00

I can't resist the obvious... He stuck around a long time! Kingsport, TN. - Harry Wesley Coover Jr., known as the inventor of Super Glue, has died. He was 94. I had no idea Super Glue was discovered in Kingsport. According to the Associated Press report, a small mishap at the Tennessee Eastman plant gave the world that high-performance adhesive. In 1951, a Coover assistant "was distressed that

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-71802356111221999592011-03-27T00:01:00.001-04:002011-03-27T00:01:03.054-04:00

We are the local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to self-awareness. We have begun to contemplate our origins: starstuff pondering the stars; organized assemblages of ten billion billion billion atoms considering the evolution of atoms; tracing the long journey by which, here at least, consciousness arose. Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-29844826649384146922011-03-26T00:01:00.008-04:002011-03-26T22:49:17.218-04:00

The folks in eastern North Carolina got a good show Tuesday evening (3/22/11). Apparently, a huge meteor went streaking across the sky. Residents of Pender, Brunswick and New Hanover Counties reported the huge fireball with a glowing fiery tail at about 7:30 PM. Here's one of the 911 calls reporting the meteor:http://www.wbtv.com/global/category.asp?c=195957&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-69762391154024673152011-03-25T00:01:00.006-04:002011-03-25T08:03:00.401-04:00

The legend of Nacoochee, the Evening Star, has been around for a while. The story is usually, though not always, set in the valley of the same name in White County, just south of Helen, Georgia.Of course, the Nacoochee tale warrants a place among stories of other nearby "lovely Indian maidens." The seraglio of legendary maidens includes Occoneechee, Trahlyta, Cateechee, Jocassee, Connestee and

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-11577758188951841392011-03-23T00:01:00.002-04:002011-03-23T00:01:00.125-04:00

I can’t leave the lovely Nacoochee Valley just yet, not when I can dredge up an antebellum poet who found his muse there.Nacoochee Mound and Mount YonahThis is the place where Charles Lanman reported (in 1848):…half a dozen log cabins were discovered in one portion of the valley, lying upwards of ten feet below the surface; and, in other places, something resembling a furnace, together with iron

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-10129734339316085502011-03-19T10:01:00.005-04:002011-03-19T14:36:29.314-04:00

While researching one story, I’m finding rabbit trails to a lot more stories, and I don’t know where to begin. A disclaimer may be in order here, given the subject matter. Just because I present an alternate view of the archaeological or historical record, it does not necessarily mean that I endorse the view. Some selections are for their literary, as much as scientific, interest.Hernando De

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-44855895126903173062011-03-17T00:01:00.007-04:002011-03-17T06:20:18.453-04:00

When the "songcatcher" Robert W. Gordon came to Jackson County October 28, 1925 he stopped in Cullowhee and recorded "Old Granny Hare" performed by W. E. Bird.Included in the the Folk-Songs of America reissue from the Library of Congress, "Old Granny Hare" can be heard here.Liner notes and lyrics follow:This version of "Old Granny Hare" was performed by Professor W. E. Bird of Cullowhee State

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-22151543972218050212011-03-15T18:37:00.011-04:002011-03-15T21:02:16.839-04:00

I made it a point to visit Aunt Samantha Bumgarner’s final resting place on a hill near the Tuckasegee River, but I never got around to posting a story on that notable Jackson County musician, “the first recorded female country music artist.” I did listen to some of her early recordings.How can I put this without references to fingernails on a blackboard? Allow me to resort to a Bill Nye quip

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-14008366053222634012011-03-14T00:01:00.000-04:002011-03-14T00:01:05.863-04:00

Thou knowest that the ancient trees seen by thine eyes have fruit;But knowest thou that trees and fruits flourish upon the earthTo gratify senses unknown? trees beasts and birds unknown:Unknown, not unpercievd, spread in the infinite microscope,In places yet unvisited by the voyager. and in worldsOver another kind of seas, and in atmospheres unknownAh! are there other wars, beside the wars of

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-15504400760710592452011-03-13T00:01:00.005-05:002011-03-14T07:17:48.116-04:00

As we approach the latter part of March, I'm starting to think about the rare and beautiful Oconee Bell, a flower native to the northwestern corner of South Carolina.Oconee Bells, Shortia galacifolia, 3/13/2009Unfortunately, most of the original stands of the Oconee Bell were wiped out by the development of Lake Jocassee and Lake Keowee in the 1960s and 70s.I am haunted by the image of those

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-50326190773148552402011-03-11T18:49:00.003-05:002011-03-12T19:30:27.741-05:00

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-74047951586821832722011-03-11T00:01:00.003-05:002011-03-11T07:46:08.193-05:00

For what might have been the first (and last) time in history, geologists with opposing views enlisted retired loggers to support their respective beliefs about glaciers in the Southern Appalachians during the Pleistocene Ice Age.But the story doesn’t end there.Throughout the 1970s, several researchers continued looking for evidence of glaciation in Western North Carolina. A 1979 conference

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-54908355875383938242011-03-10T00:01:00.004-05:002011-03-10T00:01:03.547-05:00

The Smoky Mountain Hiking Blog featured this video from Kevin Gallagher, who created a stop-action montage of photos taken along the Trail during his 2005 thru-hike.The entire trip in four minutes!Green Tunnel from Kevin Gallagher on Vimeo.

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-3109021489877849062011-03-09T00:01:00.004-05:002011-03-09T06:55:14.524-05:00

Instead of flying directly south, the monarchs crossing high over [Lake Superior] take an inexplicable turn towards the east. Then when they reach an invisible point, they all veer south again. Each successive swarm repeats this mysterious dogleg movement, year after year. Entomologists actually think that the butterflies might be “remembering” the position of a long-gone, looming glacier.- Annie

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-5325203663214035702011-03-05T00:01:00.007-05:002011-03-05T19:34:13.895-05:00

I've been intending to post a story on the artist-naturalists Mark Catesby (1682-1749) and John James Audubon (1785-1851). The story is written and I'll get around to posting it, but not today. For now, two looks at the osprey:Mark Catesby, ca. 1730John James Audubon, ca. 1830An excerpt from Audubon's entry on the osprey in The Birds of America:The habits of this famed bird differ so materially

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-49478785856163530372011-03-03T20:27:00.009-05:002011-03-04T07:43:59.351-05:00

I would prefer to post stories on that which I cherish about this place. Unfortunately, that which I cherish is vulnerable to the best laid schemes of mice and men. For about the past 500 years, outside interests have exploited (or hoped to exploit) these mountains for one thing and another, often with disastrous results. The peaks and valleys around here have literally become a war-zone more

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-3312413715238206032011-03-02T21:36:00.000-05:002011-03-02T21:37:01.150-05:00

While driving home along the Tuckasegee yesterday, I saw a bird that had me slamming on the brakes and grabbing my camera. The bird had its back to me, but because of its dark plumage and white head I wondered if I had come upon a bald eagle.I snapped this picture and tried to get positioned for a better look, but the bird took flight. At that point, I discounted my first notion - that it was an

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-63434270150145824572011-03-02T21:33:00.005-05:002011-03-02T21:52:30.091-05:00

The US Fish & Wildlife Service issued a report today concluding that the eastern cougar is extinct and should be removed from the endangered species list.USFWS PhotoBruce Wright, New Brunswick wildlife biologist and author, with what is believed to be the last eastern puma. The puma was trapped by Rosarie Morin of St. Zacharie, Quebec in Somerset County, Maine in 1938. Mounted specimen resides in

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-71220252639669122562011-02-27T22:45:00.005-05:002011-02-28T07:10:10.922-05:00

I remember my earliest excursions on the Horsepasture River. Thirty years ago, it was a word-of-mouth find. This was before the publication of dozens of new hiking maps, trail guides and waterfall books that direct you to the most obscure treasures of the mountains. This was before the Internet!Rainbow FallsBack then, those in the know could park alongside Highway 281, near the bridge over the

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-11032363994850995042011-02-26T00:01:00.007-05:002011-02-27T00:29:36.131-05:00

Julian Price Park, near Blowing Rock, NC 10/18/07. The Future of Forestry-C. S. LewisHow will the legend of the age of treesFeel, when the last tree falls in England?When the concrete spreads and the town conquersThe country's heart; when contraceptiveTarmac's laid where farm has faded,Tramline flows where slept a hamlet,And shop-fronts, blazing without a stop fromDover to Wrath, have glazed us

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-50450817284487255892011-02-25T00:01:00.001-05:002011-02-25T00:01:07.659-05:00

The most recent installment from E. G. Paine follows. Or, follow this link for all episodes to date.Chapter SixteenAs soon as news of the proposed motorsports park got out, the controversy snow-balled. People who knew about Lola and Winona’s camp – and especially the volunteers and donors making it happen – were outraged that there was nothing to prevent something as disruptive as a race

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-19831859357904306582011-02-24T00:01:00.006-05:002011-02-24T18:12:29.437-05:00

Power resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state.-Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”I am a map fanatic. So when I replaced my Georgia roadmap the other day, I spent a while perusing the new one and found an unfamiliar place, or at least a place unfamiliar to me: Tennga - on the Tennessee line.Now isn’t that cute?I remember, long ago, a trip from the North Carolina piedmont

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-86376992562685201182011-02-22T06:40:00.002-05:002011-02-22T06:42:47.637-05:00

Great Blue Heron on the Tuckasegee, 2/21/11The Heronby Theodore RoethkeThe heron stands in water where the swampHas deepened to the blackness of a pool,Or balances with one leg on a humpOf marsh grass heaped above a musk-rat hole.He walks the shallow with an antic grace.The great feet break the ridges of the sand,The long eye notes the minnow's hiding place.His beak is quicker than a human

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-90930486915381733612011-02-19T00:01:00.000-05:002011-02-19T00:01:00.335-05:00

This balmy weather encourages thoughts and deeds of gardening. I've already done an inventory of seeds saved from last year. And I got together an order for some new seeds from Heavenly Seed, LLC, Anderson, SC (more or less the successor to the Bradshaw seed service that came out of Clemson).Tobacco field, French Broad Valley near Hot Springs, 9/3/07Their catalog offers dozens of regional

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-90844168795966065812011-02-18T00:01:00.009-05:002011-02-18T19:07:21.038-05:00

I've stumbled upon a discovery: a whole lot has been written on the topic of how to say "Van Gogh."The BBC weighs in:How to Say: Van Gogh 11:40 UK time, Friday, 22 January 2010 An occasional guide to the words and names in the news from Esther de Leeuw of the BBC Pronunciation Unit.During his lifetime, most people would not have given much thought to the pronunciation of Vincent van Gogh's name.

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-56030623193726475162011-02-17T06:01:00.004-05:002011-02-17T06:01:00.337-05:00

Ilya Efimovich Efimovich Repin, Eugene Onegin and Vladimir Lensky's duelIn John Preston Arthur’s splendid 1914 book, Western North Carolina: A History (1730-1913), he devotes an entire chapter to dueling:THE LAW OF DUELINGTHE JACKSON-AVERY DUELTHE VANCE-CARSON DUELTHE CLINGMAN-YANCEY DUELTHE ERWIN-BAXTEE DUELTHE HYMAN-HILLIARD DUELA ONE-SIDED DUEL ACROSS THE STATE LINEIt’s easy for me to choose

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-64155551152486655892011-02-16T18:52:00.002-05:002011-02-18T21:32:22.175-05:00

Stone piles near the corner of Skyland Drive and Parris Branch Road. A reader explains, "All the rock at Skyland and Parris Branch came from the big patch of mud across the street from Scotts Creek Baptist on Steeple lane. They dug all the rock and soil out and took it down the road. They then took dirt from elsewhere and filled that area in, and made it a bit higher so its out of the flood

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-71846165270331134332011-02-15T17:47:00.006-05:002011-02-15T19:03:09.588-05:00

The Internet has become the public space of the 21st century -- the world's town square, classroom, marketplace, coffee house, and nightclub. We all shape and are shaped by what happens there.-Hillary Clinton, speaking earlier todayTake a short stroll through the local public square and you'll find the map for a $66 million highway gashed through the woods and mountains between Sylva and

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-69976351461862655962011-02-13T08:31:00.002-05:002011-02-13T10:15:02.992-05:00

When I was a little kid in the schoolyard, the reappearance of robins was always a welcome sign of spring’s arrival. I didn't know much about robins. They hopped. They ate worms. Their eggshells were a nice shade of blue. In the years since then, I haven't learned much more than that about them and I haven't considered the migratory behavior of Turdus migratorus…until this winter.Cullowhee

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-22467307787783582992011-02-10T00:01:00.009-05:002011-02-13T20:46:11.615-05:00

Straight ForkGreat Smoky Mountains National Park10/19/2009A Forest Hymnby William Cullen BryantThe groves were God's first temples. Ere man learnedTo hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,And spread the roof above them,---ere he framedThe lofty vault, to gather and roll backThe sound of anthems; in the darkling wood,Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down,And offered to the Mightiest solemn

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-18462882351346661112011-02-08T00:01:00.005-05:002011-02-08T07:40:20.210-05:00

I try to do my homework before setting out to explore new places. Sometimes, though, that is simply not possible. While wandering the back roads of North Georgia in that enchanted triangle bounded by Clayton, Cleveland and Blairsville, I saw a sign for Trackrock Road.I remembered a reference to Track Rock in John Muir’s account of his thousand-mile walk to the Gulf in 1867, and I knew that

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-57508177734171554972011-02-07T00:02:00.001-05:002011-02-10T19:42:02.775-05:00

During the French occupation of his country in the early 1900s, Tunisian poet Abo Al Qassim Al Shabbi wrote a poem that has become a rallying call for protestors in Tunisia and Egypt:To the Tyrants of the WorldOppressive tyrants…Lovers of darkness…Enemies of life…You've made fun of innocent people's wounds;Your palm covered with their blood.You deformed the magic of existenceAnd planted the seeds

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-57346980628558664362011-02-06T00:01:00.001-05:002011-02-10T19:33:26.342-05:00

Abatemarco et al v. LEGASUS OF NORTH CAROLINA, LLC et al was filed in Western District Court, Asheville, NC, February 4, 2011Excerpts follow. For the entire document, go to http://www.scribd.com/doc/48258805.This case involves a real estate development marketed and sold to the Plaintiffs by the Defendants through an elaborate scheme designed to artificially inflate the value of lots in the River

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-86323419926423485132011-02-05T12:01:00.000-05:002011-02-06T00:48:43.874-05:00

Cowee Farmhouse, 11/9/2008From The Triumph of the Tree, by John Stewart Collis, 1950:We were nursed into life by trees. It is to trees that we owe the development of a physiology which made Man possible – that is to say, made conceptual thought possible. Those fundamental facts should be sufficient to explain the intimate quality of man’s relationship with trees.There is a still more practical

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-77999514326890263782011-02-03T19:23:00.013-05:002011-02-04T08:21:33.019-05:00

Recently, I had occasion to look up North Carolina law on cyberstalking (NC General Statutes 14-196.3).Herbert Hyde, on the dust jacketBut the subject of today's story is what I found when I turned the page to NCGS 14-197:If any person shall, on any public road or highway and in the hearing of two or more persons, in a loud and boisterous manner, use indecent or profane language, he shall be

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-6544625342208112412011-02-02T00:01:00.005-05:002011-02-02T06:57:27.811-05:00

This is pretty cool: trail notes and a map by the legendary photographer, George Masa (1882 - 1933), from a hike with the Carolina Mountain Club. Of course, this predated the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's fun to imagine what that familiar territory must have been like without the Parkway running through it. I've seen Quinland on the map. It was on the Haywood County side where a trail crossed the

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-28779908547748053932011-02-01T00:01:00.004-05:002011-02-02T18:09:27.388-05:00

I guess it is time to re-post this one from February 2, 2009:As the light grows longerThe cold grows strongerIf Candlemas be fair and brightWinter will have another flightIf Candlemas be cloud and snowWinter will be gone and not come againA farmer should on Candlemas dayHave half his corn and half his hayOn Candlemas day if thorns hang a dropYou can be sure of a good pea crop-Scottish poem Saint

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-52108630011727975182011-01-30T00:01:00.000-05:002011-01-30T00:01:01.838-05:00

Do much shopping for vintage postcards and you'll find plenty along the lines of Old Black Joe. As soon as I saw this one, I thought about the line in a Leonard Cohen song:I'm really not sure if LC had a specific reference in mind, other than the popular nineteenth century Stephen Foster song (performed here by Paul Robeson):

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-12223460659696715962011-01-28T00:01:00.002-05:002011-01-28T00:01:00.930-05:00

Thanks to the Professor for this tip - a National Geographic article about Cahokia, "America's Forgotten City."articlehttp://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/cahokia/hodges-text/1awesome photoshttp://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/cahokia/burmeister-photographyFour centuries before Columbus, Cahokia (near present-day Saint Louis) was the metropolis of North America. The circumstances of its

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-44740585087633175882011-01-26T00:01:00.005-05:002011-02-01T07:25:50.303-05:00

The concept of sacred groves hasn’t caught on so well in America, if by “sacred groves” you mean patches of forest dedicated to folk deities, groves protected by local communities over the course of generations.AN ORIGINAL SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN FOREST, TRANSYLVANIA COUNTY, N. C. (Henry Scadin photograph)While there may be hundreds of such sacred groves in India, I’m not sure where you

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-30680374878596814272011-01-24T00:01:00.002-05:002011-01-24T00:01:02.345-05:00

...walking like the lost boys of Sierra Leone / the trail of tears what they got me like a Cherokee on...-From Walk Alone by The RootsRight On, The Roots, featuring Joanna Newsom, from How I Got Over - "...contains a subtle, somber sound that incorporates musical elements of soul, jazz, indie rock, and gospel music, and features lyrics concerning themes of existentialism, perseverance, and modern

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-60771894338570702692011-01-22T00:01:00.007-05:002011-01-22T13:53:17.749-05:00

A couple of finds, located in Haywood County:The Hotel Lefaine was, in its day, one of the most popular hotels in Waynesville. Apparently, it was removed for construction of the justice center in downtown Waynesville.The Skyland Camp for Girls started in 1917 and is still operating in Clyde. Surprisingly, the old building depicted on this postcard is still there.And just a little farther from

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-52318725779485388142011-01-21T00:01:00.008-05:002011-01-21T07:21:00.499-05:00

Reynolds Price, 1933 - 2011Life is short and often stingy; feast the heart with what it craves, short of cruelty, and let the world wonder.I think we Southerners have talked a fair amount of malarkey about the mystique of being Southern.From the age of six I wanted to be an artist. At that point I meant a painter, but it turned out what I really meant was I was someone who was very interested in

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-47916689242402086542011-01-20T00:01:00.005-05:002011-01-20T08:00:07.675-05:00

The most recent installment from E. G. Paine follows. Or, follow this link for all episodes to date.Chapter FifteenDaniel was frustrated in his efforts to locate the archaeological sites listed in the Cyrus Thomas report. He did know of one mound that had been destroyed: the one on the campus of Owassee State University, the one excavated by the mustachioed man whose photograph was at the

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-84155949650013594902011-01-18T00:01:00.002-05:002011-01-18T00:01:00.538-05:00

And when the sun sets dimmed in eve, and purple fills the air,I think the sacred hazel-tree is dropping berries there,From starry fruitage, waved aloft where Connla's Well o'erflows;For sure, the immortal waters run through every wind that blows.-from Connla's Well by George William RussellI can’t get very far into this topic without thinking about a composition by John Williams, something quite

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-80933955786329811672011-01-16T19:21:00.007-05:002011-01-17T21:11:39.209-05:00

The planet Jupiter, from the VoyagerDuring January, that bright light after sunset in the southwestern part of the sky is the planet Jupiter.I'm impressed.Methane hurricanes? Holy cow!Jupiter and Thetis, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1811I wasn't sure why Jupiter was depicted with a belly button, but now I understand. If I ever knew, I forgot, but now I know again. (In other words, his parents

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-80610640232177092042011-01-15T00:01:00.005-05:002011-01-18T23:58:58.834-05:00

Some more postcards of various vintages, from Cherokee:I didn't even know they had (have?) a chairlift in Cherokee. Things were a little different way back when.The Cherokee Tavern? I think I recognize the building, but never knew it was a tavern.The fine looking gentleman on these two cards is Moses Walkingstick.Frontier Land (1962-1982?) in its hey-day. And am I correct that it was located on

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-72618269397978208332011-01-14T00:01:00.004-05:002011-01-14T00:01:00.488-05:00

I just stumbled upon another image from one of the fine early photographers in our region, Henry Scadin. This is a view of the southeast profile of Whiteside Mountain (ca. 1900) and, yes, the little speck at the top of the rock is a person.

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-59943189631385234172011-01-13T00:01:00.009-05:002011-01-15T19:40:44.195-05:00

The most recent installment from E. G. Paine follows. Or, follow this link for all episodes to date.Chapter FourteenDaniel made sure he had picked up an extra copy of the archaeological site report and set off for Mulberry Creek. He had always been fond of Lola, and he could tell that Winona had survived fame and fortune remarkably well, so he looked forward to the walk and dinner. He was

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-4075241003332645662011-01-12T00:01:00.001-05:002011-01-12T00:01:01.097-05:00

The National Conference on Conservation of Sacred Groves to Protect Biodiversity is scheduled for February 12-14, but I don’t think I’ll be attending. The registration deadline has passed. Not only that, the conference will be held in Chennai, Tamilnadu, India.Satulah, 2006Nevertheless, I’ve been reading about the sacred groves of India for some time now and have tried to imagine something

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-13567722100845809792011-01-11T00:01:00.009-05:002011-01-18T23:58:10.834-05:00

It has been a while since I've shopped for vintage postcards. But I've been browsing various sources recently, and have come across views I'd not seen before. It is unusual to find old postcards of Cullowhee showing anything besides the Baptist Church, but this one from 1927 features Moore Dormitory:What? No "orbs"?The Virtual Blue Ridge website discusses the one-time dorm on the campus of

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-1176829874360752792011-01-10T00:01:00.006-05:002011-01-10T08:43:45.869-05:00

From John O'Donohue:The more I've been thinking about this, the more it seems to me actually is that the visible world is the first shoreline of the invisible world. ...And that in some way the poignance of being a human being is that you are the place where the invisible becomes visible and expressive in some way....Well, I think it makes a huge difference when you wake in the morning and come

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-73752079572498690812011-01-08T00:01:00.006-05:002011-01-18T23:59:37.161-05:00

From one of my favorite blogs, Paleo-Futurehttp://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2010/12/16/the-sno-melter-1960.htmlThe Sno-Melter, "Closer Than We Think," January 3, 1960Snow piles and drifts on highways and turnpikes may soon be a thing of the past. Esso Research and Engineering Company has already devised a system for clearing urban roadways that is reported to be cheaper than under-pavement steam

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-16412545825804340452011-01-07T00:01:00.003-05:002011-01-07T07:21:43.881-05:00

At the end of the nineteenth century, ornithologists studied birds in the way they had studied them since the time of John J. Audubon: they took their shotguns and slaughtered them.In his history of American birding, Of a Feather, Scott Weidensaul uses the term “Shotgun Ornithology” to refer to the firmly held belief of that time: “the path to ornithological wisdom issued from the muzzle of a

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-67441094268531596732011-01-06T00:01:00.016-05:002011-01-06T20:27:21.511-05:00

Meet Ted Williams:I like this guy. What a story...

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-85606769221709562011-01-04T00:01:00.000-05:002011-01-04T00:01:03.218-05:00

When Leopold and Leopold met, they were two teenagers who enjoyed taking pictures with their Brownie cameras. The friends, Leopold Godowsky, Jr. (1900 - 1983) and Leopold Mannes (1899 - 1964), went on to become highly-accomplished professional musicians, but are best known for their collaborative effort to invent and improve the color film, Kodachrome. Along the way, their colleagues came up with

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-25734158352245863192011-01-01T01:11:00.008-05:002011-01-01T01:11:00.284-05:00

An old, largely forgotten, friend is no longer with us. The end finally came for Kodachrome (1935-2010) on December 31. With a dwindling supply of processing chemicals left, the last lab that could develop the film called it quits.For many of us of a certain age, Kodachrome was the color slide film of choice. Most of the pictures I shot in Kodachrome are long gone. Lacking any convenient means of

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-877715687907759082010-12-29T00:01:00.001-05:002010-12-29T00:01:02.309-05:00

So we saunter toward the Holy Land; till one day the sun shall shine more brightly than ever he has done, shall perchance shine into our minds and hearts, and light up our whole lives with a great awakening light, so warm and serene and golden as on a bank-side in Autumn.-From Walking, by Henry David Thoreau.September 23Warden's FallsAll things being equal, I favor accessing Panthertown Valley

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-49991553034146592722010-12-26T00:01:00.008-05:002010-12-26T00:01:00.045-05:00

Knowledge of places is closely linked to knowledge of the self, to grasping one's position in the larger scheme of things, including one's own community, and to securing a confident sense of who one is a person.-Keith H. Basso, Wisdom Sits in PlacesIn Myths of the Cherokee, James Mooney discusses the etymology of "Chattooga." Under his listing for "Tsatugi" [the name commonly written Chattooga or

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-36248548344059969622010-12-24T00:01:00.006-05:002010-12-24T18:53:45.992-05:00

Languages evolve over the course of centuries to meet the needs of their speakers and to convey the thoughts these speakers choose to express. Each language shows us a unique way of understanding experience; the loss of a language means the loss of all that could be learned through the study of that language about human values, oral literature and tradition, history, and human thought.-Dr. Lyle

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-60992910673931969302010-12-23T00:01:00.003-05:002010-12-23T00:01:01.360-05:00

I've been wanting to write about this for the longest time, but as with most good subjects I'm not equal to the job. For now, here's the answer. So...what's the question? (I promise you: this is leading up to one heck of a story!)BeothukLaurentianNewfoundland IrishPentlatchTsetsautWyandotAbnaki, EasternAdaiAlseaAtakapaBarbareñoBiloxiCayuseChehalisChimarikoChitimachaCoquilleCostanoan,

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-79870725760183988632010-12-22T00:01:00.008-05:002010-12-22T00:01:02.838-05:00

Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall.-Fulton SheenOne can never visit enough waterfalls. And when I look back on the falls I discovered for the first time this year, I just regret that I didn't get around to more.May 2Chau-Ram FallsThis one is on

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-18157913327118129392010-12-20T19:01:00.001-05:002010-12-20T19:51:34.835-05:00

For the arrival of the winter solstice on Tuesday here's a re-run from last year:The Green Man, born on the winter solsticeOver the centuries, many cultures of the northern hemisphere have celebrated this day. One recurring theme is to make it a time of ritual purification. What a novel concept! I don’t think we’d have much luck pitching “purification” to the contemporary American consumer of

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-85656566683894012902010-12-19T00:01:00.009-05:002010-12-21T20:56:44.090-05:00

The most recent installment from E. G. Paine follows. Or, follow this link for all episodes to date..Chapter NineOne afternoon in late May, Daniel drove to Mulberry Creek to pick up a flat of heirloom tomato plants that a green-thumbed friend had offered him. Now, he could start counting the days until the first homegrown tomato sandwich, one of summer’s sublime pleasures.He was curious to see

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-79109982185675422512010-12-16T00:01:00.006-05:002010-12-16T06:56:09.248-05:00

A Machine to End War —A Famous Inventor, Picturing Life 100 Years from Now, Reveals an Astounding Scientific Venture Which He Believes Will Change the Course of HistoryLiberty Magazine, February 1937by Nikola Teslaas told to George Sylvester ViereckTesla. "It seems," he says, "that I have always been ahead of my time."Editor's Note: Nikola Tesla, now in his seventy-eighth year, has been called

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-89456433894386807072010-12-14T00:01:00.002-05:002010-12-14T00:01:02.356-05:00

If I could write the books I’d want to write, one would be a collection of stories from along the Eastern Continental Divide. Things are especially interesting on the margins, on the edges, along the borders, and that’s certainly the case for the ECD. Of course, I’ve already posted a bunch of entries related to the natural and human history occurring along the divide in western North Carolina,

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-24385079416936743472010-12-11T00:01:00.010-05:002011-03-02T21:45:40.797-05:00

updated 2/28/11Lately, this blog has been getting lots of hits from people googling "panthers in tennessee." And some of those people have been leaving comments about their own close encounters with the big felines.Here's a collection of all the reports I've received to date, including several recent ones:Anonymous said...About 20 years ago, when I was a little girl, there were black panther

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-26054225440695959802010-12-08T00:01:00.005-05:002010-12-08T06:48:42.387-05:00

From Ralph Waldo Emerson:Letter to Martin Van Buren, President of the United States1836Sir:The seat you fill places you in a relation of credit and nearness to every citizen. By right and natural position, every citizen is your friend. Before any acts contrary to his own judgment or interest have repelled the affections of any man, each may look with trust and living anticipation to your

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-32156715658085526472010-12-07T00:01:00.001-05:002010-12-07T00:01:00.826-05:00

In 1931, the makers of Lysol promoted its effectiveness as a douche. Some Lysol customers had already discovered its usefulness as a contraceptive.On December 5, 1931, Vachel Lindsay found one more use for Lysol. Declaring victory, “They tried to get me - I got them first!” he drank a bottle of the disinfectant and died.His longtime friend, Sara Teasdale, remembered him in verse:In Memory of

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-15562014893928222032010-12-04T00:01:00.005-05:002010-12-04T00:07:53.320-05:00

DEMOCRACYIt's coming through a hole in the air,from those nights in Tiananmen Square.It's coming from the feelthat this ain't exactly real,or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.From the wars against disorder,from the sirens night and day,from the fires of the homeless,from the ashes of the gay:Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.It's coming through a crack in the wall;on a visionary flood of

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-40751777849661332782010-12-01T00:01:00.005-05:002010-12-01T07:36:53.025-05:00

I came along several years too late to know my great-grandfather. He lived among fellow descendents of German immigrants whose neatly-kept farms added beauty to the rolling hills of the Southern Piedmont. He worked as a miller until the day the gypsies came.They robbed him, beat him, and left him for dead by the millrace. Somehow, he survived the attack, but he never fully recovered. To be

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-67826882305258580742010-11-30T00:01:00.003-05:002010-11-30T00:01:03.369-05:00

"As we move forward along the gadget-strewn path of mechanization we become more and more aware of the general theme, DO IT THE HARD WAY. The more trivial the product, the more complicated the machine."-Rube Goldberg (1883-1970)Even before he reached the age of 50, Rube Goldberg saw his name in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as an adjective meaning “accomplishing something simple through complex

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-18018590740618769502010-11-28T17:01:00.000-05:002010-11-28T17:01:00.331-05:00

My own working assumption of why we are here is that we are here as local-Universe information-gatherers and that we are given access to the divine design principles so that we can therefrom objectively invent instruments and tools -- e.g., the microscope and the telescope -- with which to extend all sensorial inquiring regarding the rest of the to-the-naked-eye-invisible, micro-macro Universe,

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-31388394307057388702010-11-26T00:01:00.005-05:002010-11-26T01:03:01.689-05:00

This virtual walk through the southern mountains with Vachel Lindsay has taken several weeks longer than his actual walk in the spring of 1906. So be it.There's more to go. Two more (?) installments after this one, including a PERFORMANCE by the troubadour himself.From Vachel Lindsay, A Poet in America, by Edgar Lee Masters:The first day out of Asheville he made twenty miles. He was now penniless

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-54803005312985526232010-11-25T00:01:00.005-05:002010-11-25T00:01:01.507-05:00

Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.- Mark TwainThe proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path lies danger.-Frank Herbert Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.-SenecaIf you cannot avoid overeating at a feast, leave the table and find relief by vomiting.-The Wisdom of Ben Sira, 2nd Century B.CThe shepherd drives

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-24318873238932731532010-11-23T00:01:00.002-05:002010-11-23T17:32:22.364-05:00

Just this time, I'm jumping ahead to Vachel Lindsay's travels in Tennessee. This is why I like him. From A Handy Guide for Beggars:The Tailor And The FloristNow the story begins all over again with the episode of the well-known tailor and the unknown florist. Just off the main street of Greenville, Tennessee, there is a log cabin with the century old inscription, Andrew Johnson, Tailor. That

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-9832199530920790402010-11-22T00:01:00.001-05:002010-11-22T00:01:01.761-05:00

I liked the concept of Chautauqua as soon as I heard about it many years ago. What’s not to like about a festival of the arts, sciences, philosophy and public affairs…from low-brow to high-brow and everything in between? President Theodore Roosevelt called Chautauqua "the most American thing in America."The original summer assembly of adult education and recreation began in the little town of

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-27483167565584623362010-11-19T00:01:00.003-05:002010-11-21T10:16:15.444-05:00

O, what a world of unseen visions and heard silences, this insubstantial country of the mind! What ineffable essences, these touchless rememberings and unshowable reveries! And the privacy of it all! A secret theater of speechless monologue and prevenient counsel, an invisible mansion of all moods, musings, and mysteries, an infinite resort of disappointments and discoveries. A whole kingdom

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-71958400997121196412010-11-16T00:01:00.001-05:002010-11-16T20:53:29.573-05:00

The treadmill guys have brought us one very ambitious Rube Goldberg machine:Wired Magazine has an article on the making of This Too Shall Pass:OK Go recruited a gang of very talented engineers to build a huge, elaborate Rube Goldberg machine whose action perfectly meshes with the band’s song, “This Too Shall Pass,” from the band’s new album, Of the Blue Color of the Sky...Those builders were Syyn

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-68980010783411969652010-11-14T00:01:00.003-05:002010-11-14T11:26:42.960-05:00

Croquet on the garden terrace, Biltmore Estate, May 1906Vachel Lindsay departed from the House of the Magic Loom and crossed Mount Toxaway en route to Asheville. In his diary, he recorded:If I cannot beat the system I can die protesting, I can give things away and keep ragged. Count that day wasted in which you are not giving away the work of your hands.In A Handy Guide for Beggars, Vachel

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-20810107449750944792010-11-11T10:01:00.002-05:002010-11-11T10:58:46.915-05:00

Wilfred Owen, 1893-1918Dulce Et Decorum Est*-by Wilfred OwenBent double, like old beggars under sacks,Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,And towards our distant rest began to trudge.Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hootsOf

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-27930283684817830292010-11-07T23:07:00.003-05:002010-11-07T23:17:40.354-05:00

Tuckasegee PumpkinsThe Pumpkinby John Greenleaf WhittierOh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold,Like that which o'er Nineveh's prophet once grew,While he waited to know that his warning was true,And longed for the storm-cloud, and listened in

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-25033941603803145882010-11-02T00:01:00.004-04:002010-11-02T00:01:03.105-04:00

Out of the blue, a name came to mind the other day, a name I'd not heard in years. When I was a kid, I loved the intricate diagrams created by cartoonist Rube Goldberg (1883-1970). What came to be known as "Rube Goldberg machines" completed simple tasks in elaborately complex ways.The life and legacy of Rube Goldberg deserves closer examination. For now, here's a contemporary creation inspired by

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-76227167279532218972010-10-31T00:01:00.007-04:002010-10-31T09:24:05.857-04:00

"I am interested in art as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living.”-Robert Henri, 1865-1929Robert Henri self portrait, 1903In the years before his walking tour of the South, Vachel Lindsay had studied art in Chicago and New York. One of his teachers was the renowned painter Robert Henri, credited as “an immensely significant force behind the change from 19-century academicism

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-55978530660564216342010-10-29T00:01:00.002-04:002010-10-29T16:05:35.134-04:00

If these people were on the skyline, and kept their eyes open, they would see the things that the giant could see.–BENTON MACKAYE, founder of the Appalachian Trail, 1921Benton MacKaye, 1879—1975If you thought the 2175-mile path linking Springer Mountain, Georgia and Mount Katahdin, Maine was the full extent of the Appalachian Trail, then guess again.If you count the International Appalachian

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-5157629954874233862010-10-27T00:01:00.003-04:002010-10-27T00:01:01.311-04:00

I wonder about the identity of the family that hosted Vachel Lindsay after he left Highlands and reached Jackson County in the spring of 1906. Who knows? Maybe the incident remains alive as a small piece of family lore for some local family, the memory of a story told about the night that an eccentric young man appeared, needing a place to stay, and going on to write about it years later. And

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-36294863284715314412010-10-24T00:01:00.011-04:002010-10-24T11:16:13.996-04:00

You just never know when you might encounter invasive aliens intent on wreaking havoc in the neighborhood. Walking along the trail at Cullowhee Rec Center the other day, I saw them, lining the little creek that separates the park from the elementary school.Oriental bittersweet in Cullowhee, 10/22/10I thought I recognized the plants, but studied a bit when I got back home, and still think they are

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-8905240369334208022010-10-22T00:01:00.001-04:002010-10-22T00:01:03.913-04:00

Vachel Lindsay wandered, lost, into Jackson County, the dramatic terrain helping to clear his mind of political disagreements and debates between Science and Art.Wagon road from Highlands to Whiteside Mountain, ca. 1897, Henry Scadin photographFrom A Handy Guide for Beggars:I turned to the right once too often, and climbed Mount Whiteside. There was a drop of millions of miles, and a Lilliputian

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-73254144365276418512010-10-18T00:01:00.004-04:002010-10-21T11:08:02.343-04:00

Joshua Tree Under the Milky Way time lapse from Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo.From The Spell of the Sensuous, by David Abram:Over my head the black sky was rippling with stars, densely clustered in some regions, almost blocking out the darkness between them, and more loosely scattered in other areas, pulsing and beckoning to each other. Behind them all streamed the great river of light with its

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-14186361269078109092010-10-17T09:18:00.010-04:002010-10-17T10:10:11.129-04:00

During his evening spent with the Thomas Harbison family in Highlands, Vachel Lindsay observed that the professor “was full of Spencer and Huxley, an anti-socialist willing to die fighting socialism.”Professor HarbisonI suspect that Lindsay recoiled upon this discovery. Let’s introduce into evidence a poem written long after 1906, but written by Lindsay nonetheless:WHY I VOTED THE SOCIALIST

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-43396253936109697232010-10-16T00:01:00.004-04:002010-10-16T08:42:02.207-04:00

Vachel Lindsay reached the Highlands plateau at last.Main Street, Highlands, 1910 (Henry Scadin photograph)Ten years after his 1906 hike, Lindsay wrote about it in A Handy Guide for Beggars. When Edgar Lee Masters prepared Lindsay’s biography in the 1930s he had access to Lindsay’s many diaries, including those kept on the Southern trip. So, we now have the luxury of two parallel versions of the

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-82523719859880341502010-10-15T00:01:00.002-04:002010-10-16T07:29:03.085-04:00

Skinny Dip Falls, Mountains to Sea Trail, Pisgah National Forest

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-64593638617593449762010-10-14T00:01:00.011-04:002010-10-17T10:07:27.113-04:00

Vachel Lindsay continued his long walk toward Highlands. He was thinking about the folks at Mud Creek Flats, who had listened attentively to his recitation of The Tree of Laughing Bells.Sara Teasdale, ca. 1913.In his pocket, he carried a letter of introduction to the Highlands naturalist who would shelter the troubadour for a night.Before following him any further along the path, though, let's

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After Vachel Lindsay’s death-defying day in Tallulah Gorge, he resumed his trip, walking the railroad tracks leading north through Clayton and Dillard in Rabun County, GA. Mountain View from Clayton, GAApproaching the North Carolina state line, he diverged from the railroad and spent a precious quarter to take a stagecoach for three miles on the road leading up toward Highlands. Soon, though, the

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In one of the more coherent, but no less ecstatic, passages from A Handy Guide for Beggars, Vachel Lindsay described his day at Tallulah Gorge.He had just spent several days to walking from Atlanta to Tallulah on his way to the mountains in April 1906. Taking some cheese and crackers as his fare for the day by the waterfalls, he clambered over the rocks and lived to tell about it. This is lengthy

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.October Photographs 2006-2010.LeavesONE by one, like leaves from a tree,All my faiths have forsaken me;But the stars above my headBurn in white and delicate red,And beneath my feet the earthBrings the sturdy grass to birth.I who was content to beBut a silken-singing tree,But a rustle of delightIn the wistful heart of night--I have lost the leaves that knewTouch of rain and weight of

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Stone Mountain, Georgia, ca. 1902While Vachel Lindsay was walking from Atlanta to the mountains during the last week of April 1906, he was imagining the book that he would write:It should contain my sermons on the new Christ, and all other things I would wish to say as a priest of art, and cannot say by word of mouth. That is my only chance to evangelize peacefully….My book should contain the

GULAHIYInoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092068160058011436.post-88365338355943448132010-10-07T00:01:00.001-04:002010-10-07T00:01:02.201-04:00

I don’t know much about the life of Vachel Lindsay, but I do know that his most cherished hopes met with disappointment. He has my admiration for walking hundreds of miles along the dusty back roads of America, and for why he did it.Lindsay tried to take poetry back to its spoken roots. I should say he took poetry back to its spoken roots, an achievement I intend to make clear eventually.George

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