“It was a substantial-looking farm. In the stables, over the top of the open doors, one could see great cart-horses quietly feeding from new racks. Right along the outbuildings extended a large dunghill, from which manure liquid oozed, while amidst fowls and turkeys, five or six peacocks, a luxury in Chauchois farmyards, were foraging on the top of it.”
I went out tonight to the garage, a blue plastic 40 gallon garbage can in hand, empty from the road where the Waste Management corporation had left it. As I walked by the shade beds, bathed by the breeze in the scent of mock orange, I thought there were worse things than being alive on a sunny evening in June. I came out from beneath the shrubs and the trees into the graveled parking area before the garage and there high above the tobacco shed the moon was tethered, just another element of the view, and not close or particularly accessible, but mine at that moment, as much mine as the shed and the parking lot, the walnut or the pines, as much mine as the Philadelphus coronarius that shades the drive and soaks the June air with a scent that is almost psychedelic.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
tamarika 06.08.06 at 4:18
This was beautiful to read early in the morning. I immediately thought of Gore’s movie: “An Inconvenient Truth.” I don’t know why.
Thank you.
Frank Paynter 06.08.06 at 2:03
Thank you.
McD 06.08.06 at 3:02
Frank,
I had to Google serach for the “Madame Bovary” reference. It’s comforting to know that even when you’re doing some chores you stop and reflect upon this absolutely spectacular gifts we have been given… by Howard. I call him Howard. She doesn’t seem to mind.
The Waste Management created a nice little false move… my mind went spinning off into a rant and you just pulled me into a little moon watching. Lovely writing.
Frank Paynter 06.08.06 at 3:35
A little head fake… I thought it echoed the oozing manure pile a little. The inspiration of course was from Madame L.’s header quote re pus.
McD 06.08.06 at 5:58
Frank,
Madame L: “PUS: Rejoice when it comes out, and express astonishment that the human body can contain such large quantities.”
I need to Google that to see where it comes from… Flaubert. Man you guys are well read. Without Google I’d be totally lost.
Candidly, I don’t get the connect between those words and yours but hey, inspiration works it’s own magic on the victim.
I did like that head fake and I got the resonance of the dung heap and your little Waste Management chores… you’re able to find the pony in all things Frank. Rejoice in that.
Frank Paynter 06.08.06 at 7:21
My sophomoric take on Flaubert is informed by the poetic juxtaposition of beauty and stench, the pastoral and the bucolic, scientific wonder - the objectively clinical - and disgusting putridity. Peacocks on dung heaps and the wonders of pus each evince Flaubert’s use of rich contrasts. In that way I find them parallel and comparable.
McD 06.09.06 at 9:06
Frank,
Hmm… Flaubert… what a great gift idea… link beauty to stench, pastoral to bucolic, scientific wonder and disgusting putridity. It does help explain Madame Levy’s blogging style a bit… or the films of David Lynch: Blue Velvet’s suburbia with the drill down below the sod and all those worms.
I’m sure it’s an acquired taste and explains wwhy a lot of Flaubert hasn’t been cranked into film… the audience is not ready for such poetic juxtapositions. They prefer “The Lake House” version of pure wish fulfillment. Which might fit with that fact that there daily lives contain enough pus, putridity and dung already.
I’m glad to see you finding those ponies…. giving us a heads up that occasionally just looking around might hold some hidden moment of bliss. In our house it’s the animals that deliver moments of great beauty: cats, birds and fish.