Front view of a Wandering Spider (note at least six eyes-sees real good)
"We are in a race between cooperation and catastrophe, and the threat is outrunning our response." - Sam NunnSamuel Augustus Nunn, Jr. (born September 8, 1938) is an American lawyer and politician. Currently the co-chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a charitable organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons
"Even if you can't sing well, sing. Sing to yourself. Sing in the privacy of your home. But sing." - Reb Nachman of Breslov
(April 4, 1772 – October 16, 1810), was the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement. Rebbe Nachman, a great grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, breathed new life into the Hasidic movement by combining the esoteric secrets of Judaism (the Kabbalah) with in-depth Torah scholarship.
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats." - Albert Schweitzer
Spider Bite
I am caught in webs
woven of predatory
self, eight legged and lobed
with black toxic fangs,
I search for the soft tissue
within me, bite deep
and moan out my guilt
along with cold thin gruel
sure I can blame you
after all this time.
October 3, 2009 10:31 AM
Interesting subject
ReplyDeletepredatory self,
guilt-
a surprise.
the self must like it,
methinks.
Thank you my friend.
I had a very interesting day...
and evening.
Sometimes I write fiction. That's allowed, you know. You don't have to tell on yourself in poetry. You can make characters up if you want. It matters what the prompt was.
ReplyDeleteChristopher, you are going to get all the cats trophies, quit messing around.
ReplyDeleteyou know all spiders have eight eyes
this is typical arrangement
oo
oooo
oo
here in Oregon there are no recluses, just closely related cousins the Hobo
problem is the hobo resembles (almost identical) to several common house spiders, and I am being completely serious when I say one of the ONLY ways to tell is close examination of sex organs (which is not easy)
the best way to tell is their eye pattern. Hobo's are one of very few that have the eight eyes in two rows like this:
oooo
oooo
that is an entomologists quick reference trick
Reminds me of a poem I was reading last night by Emily Dickinson, the subject, not the form.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how much we like, myself especially, to blame others.
blame is the gruel, whether we blame the self or others, i think. blame is toxic. i am in a bit of blame right now. it licks like flames.
ReplyDeletei did not feel, for a second, this was your voice. too unhealthy:) i'm glad you reach out like this to characters and ideas. i'm glad i recognized it.
best in this new year, christopher
xo
erin
From Spider Eye Arrangements, http://bugguide.net/node/view/84423#Theridiidae
ReplyDeleteOverall, 99% of all spiders have 8 eyes and of the remaining 1% nearly all have 6, but there are a few exceptions. Sometimes there can even be a varying number of eyes in the same spider family. For example, there are spiders in Cybaeidae that have eight eyes, six eyes, and two eyes. Those familes are followed with "(in part)" to show that not all spiders in that family have the same number of eyes.
Families with six-eyed spiders
Anapidae (in part)
Cybaeidae (in part-nearly all eight-eyed)
Dictynidae (in part-nearly all eight-eyed)
Diguetidae
Dysderidae
Leptonetidae (in part-nearly all six-eyed)
Linyphiidae (in part-nearly all eight-eyed)
Nesticidae (in part-nearly all eight-eyed)
Ochryroceratidae
Oonopidae (in part-nearly all six-eyed)
Orsolobidae
Pholcidae (in part)
Scytodidae
Segestriidae
Sicariidae
Telemidae (in part-nearly all six-eyed)
Families with four-eyed spiders
Nesticidae (in part)
Symphytognathidae
Families with two-eyed spiders
Caponiidae
Families with no-eyed spiders
Cybaeidae (in part-nearly all eight-eyed)
Dictynidae (in part-nearly all eight-eyed)
Leptonetidae (in part)
Linyphiidae(in part-nearly all eight-eyed)
Nesticidae (in part)
Telemidae (in part-nearly all six-eyed)
Theridiidae (in part)
Damn. I hate it when Mother Spider refuses to perfectly generalize. Also the eye arrangements are graphically represented on that website and contain several ways of arranging the eyes. Big eyes and little eyes, wide spreads and clusters. Easy to draw rows, not so easy rows, no rows. But yes, in a fuzzy general way, you can say that spider eye arrangements cluster around certain forms.
ReplyDeleteWhat is really cool, the eye thing is key to spider identity, so much so that you can Google spider eye and instantly find resources.
Lilith, blame is often too toxic to keep and as you say, has to go somewhere. What is most freeing is when a person finally realizes how widespread good intentions are and how often things fail anyway. Many events that appear blameworthy really aren't. Many more even if they are blameworthy, casting blame is totally ineffective as a strategy of reconciliation.
ReplyDeleteBut then, it is a matter of spiritual growth that we even get to a stage where we seek reconciliation as a life strategy.
We are very often, as you say, blame avoidant creatures, and perfectly willing to burden others with any perceived blameworthiness.
Erin, you are right that blame is toxic. It stains things and is hard to remove.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the point of poetry does not center in the idea of self revelation. The kind of deep self honesty that I practice is but one way to get at the heart of things. It is easier to practice when I know there are other ways to get to depth. I practice them too. Some of them I call shape shifting.
On the other hand, writers are guided in workshops and such to write first what they know, and to range farther afield only when skills are developed through lifelong practice.
It seems I am having trouble this morning with being present. I am writing defensively for some reason. I need a nap already. Blame is an icky topic.
ReplyDeleteWhen the old mapmakers got to the edge
ReplyDeleteof the world, they used to write….."Beyond this place there be dragons."
“...perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.”
- Rainer Maria Rilke
I agree with that thought, miz e. It is classic, the way of the hidden within us. However, sometimes a spade is a shovel by another name. This too is the truth. We value this, no?-calling a spade a spade.
ReplyDeleteHowever much you dress it up, the heart of things cannot really be disguised. This is why it is even possible to play this displacement game, because we fairly easily have the translation key. Getting to this knowledge was a matter of looking far more than it was a matter of genius.
Freud and Jung gave us the unconscious and some basics about all this as a matter of being willing to look, not because they were extraordinary talents. They were extraordinarily courageous, more than they were extraordinarily brilliant. Well, they were brilliant of course, but not beyond the capacity of many of us. This is obviously the case as witness the growth of the movements they started.
"It matters what the prompt was"
ReplyDeleteI see me
in you
my soul
through your (8) eyes
giggle.
That's allowed you, know :D
Oh,
I was going to not like Rilke this morning but then
Mizz E quoted him ...
"perhaps all the dragons or our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us."
-Rainer Maria Rilke
I have now fallen in love with him.
thank you Mizz E. :D
Sorry sir.
We all the poem.
Good insights Christopher. As an art teacher I find myself spending a great deal of time facilitating that looking to find the unique idiom that needs to be expressed.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of children raised on techno gadgets these days are very reticent to get dirty. Once they breakthrough that barrier though ….they enjoy the mining process and the nuggets that produces.
Recovered Zombie,
ReplyDeleteI love hearing your heart took flight.
Zombie, Yes it is allowed, precisely that. All 8 eyes, though I suspect arachnid vision isn't human at all. I suspect the eyes are more like having many cameras looking many ways with some form of internal scanning. I think they are looking for something more than they are just seeing. I think they use many eyes where we turn our heads. In insects the double compound eye does very much the same thing. Each sticks out and spheroid so that it looks hemispherically.
ReplyDeleteI thing energy conservation is a real deal amongst the chitin skinned folk and they need to see without moving that much. This even though many insects can independently move the head. Most spiders I think have fixed heads.
All this is my own thinking. I have not researched it but if I sit myself in the web and lurk, I shall see you with separate eyes and also through my legs should you touch my web. My hair will bristle and break off like Tarantula hairs do, like small porcupine quills, should you touch me.
I see there is nothing for it. I am defensive today.
Mizz E, the eye of the artist must see past and beyond the ordinary filters on sight. One way I was taught was to draw the spaces rather than the objects. The inner eye of the wise does the same sort of thing. That is why looking with courage is more important than brilliance. However brilliance as a term is insightful as well, implying that its inner light assists vision.
ReplyDeleteIn this way the deep etymology between vision and wisdom is revealed - vis* and wis* being the same root.
I did not read it all, but i will take the blame.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Love!
XOX
glass spider
ReplyDeletehappy new year
Jozien, I absolutely refuse to lay blame on your shoulders because I love and respect you way too much for that!
ReplyDeleteGhost, thanks for Mr. David Bowie. I have always felt he has show stopping quality. This is a good example. Happy New Year to you too.