Sunday, July 29, 2012

Hello again wonderful Bluebell readers. Here we are in the waning days of a hot July, with not much to get excited about. Well toss your sun screen, step away from the grill and get ready to pick up a GREAT read.
 
I bring you a most awesome book to enjoy.
 
It is entitled "Core Samples From the World" by Forrest Gander 
 
 
"Just beyond, the road clears the jungle.
 Wind-blown sands scarf the road.
We can't begin to track the changes
that bring us here."
 

Forrest Gander's Core Samples from the World is a refreshing book of poetry, served up in a unique style.The poetry dances side by side with black-and-white photos by three photographers: Raymond Meeks, Graciela Inturbide and Lucas Foglia.
 
The whispering dialogue and pictures work together, but it's not as simple as the poems describing the pictures or the pictures inspiring the poems.
 
 In a poem beside a Meeks photo of two dust-covered boys carrying baskets on their heads, one up front and in focus, the other blurry in the background,
Gander writes :

 "The sense of epoch loosened,
unstrung.
Each one thinking
it is the other who recedes like a horizon."
 
Gander seems to recognize that we live in a shrinking world, bound ever more closely by his words. Words he uses to dissolve mystery and differences  and highlight that we are all the same in our  complex lives which are all just variations upon the theme of humanity.
 
The power of this thought will stay with the reader long after the books pages are closed
 
You can learn more about Forrest Gander and his work at his web site
 
See you in August dear Bluebell readers, till then stay cool by reading a good book in the shade!
 
Indie