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Linda Buckmaster

Writer • Teacher • Wanderer

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Field Notes. A Blog of Story, Place & Ideas

The perfect writing spot?

August 31, 2018

 

We might call this a peach of a spot. This is at Herring Cove Provincial Park on Campobello Island across the International Bridge from Lubec, Maine. I was having a little breakfast writing time before I went to the workshop at the annual Iota Conference http://iotaconference.com/. The view is looking out over Grand Manan Sound with that island in the background fog.

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Something I think about a lot

May 8, 2018

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” (E.B. White)

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Almost on my way back to Portugal!

May 3, 2018

On Saturday, I will be headed back to the Obras Foundation residency in the Alentejo region of Portugal, which borders Spain. (http://www.obras-art.org) I expect to be among eight other artists and writers for the month. Set between the ancient towns of Estremoz and Evora, the re-claimed farmhouse was turned into an artist residency by the charming Carolien van der Laan and Ludger van der Eerden. Here is what they say about their place:

“Our house: Monte da Marmeleria was built 200 years ago, probably with the stones that came from a quarry [on the property]. The estate of Marmeleira originally encompassed many thousands of hectares producing wheat, cattle, pork and charcoal. [Read more…] about Almost on my way back to Portugal!

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Welcome to my new Field Notes Blog

April 25, 2018

Welcome to “Field Notes: A Journal of Story, Place, and Ideas” – my version of a blog. For those of you who have been following my old blog, past postings are still there living forever, I guess (lsbuck1.blogspot.com). From this day forward, everything new will be here. [Read more…] about Welcome to my new Field Notes Blog

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Stonework

April 9, 2018

(After Dudley Zopp’s “Geologics”)

I.

It’s much quieter now. Boulders lie peacefully. A gentle wash of slate litters the hillside. Tree roots caress granite outcrops like old lovers, while igneous and metamorphic sleep together in erratic lineage, allowing lichen decades to creep across their backs. Lumpy ridges, glacial till dotted with ponds and marshes, eroded roots of volcanic chains — permeable or impermeable, but all waiting for exactly nothing. [Read more…] about Stonework

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  • The perfect writing spot?
  • Something I think about a lot
  • Almost on my way back to Portugal!
  • Welcome to my new Field Notes Blog
  • Stonework

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Welcome

Welcome to “Field Notes: A Journal of Story, Place, and Ideas” – my version of a blog. For those of you who have been following my old blog, past postings are still there living forever, I guess (lsbuck1.blogspot.com). From this day forward, everything new will be here.

“The moon and sun are eternal travelers. Even the years wander on. A lifetime adrift in a boat, or in old age leading a tired horse into the years, every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”

That quote is from Matsuo Basho in Sam Hamill’s translation of “A Narrow Road to the Interior” published by Shambhala Books in 1991. Basho is one of my role models – a wandering poet in 17th century Japan. Basho’s practice at the end of every day was to make note of what he saw and heard, who he met, gossip, weather, and landscape. He used these observations to write his poems.

Basho was continuing a tradition from the 11th century maintained primarily by
Japanese women—the nikki, or “day book.” Contemporary poet Andrew Schelling calls this practice a “peerless literary tradition based on the diary form.” Into it went observation of events, people, places visited, conversations overheard as well as natural history and local news.

Schelling talks about this practice being continued by Joanne Kyger, one of the early West Coast “Beat” poets. Kyger, who died last year, was an early wife of poet Gary Snyder and traveled with him and Allen Ginsberg to Japan and India. She’s spent significant time in Mexico and calls the writing journal her “casa, ” her little home when she’s on the road.

All of this will be familiar to naturalists, journalists, and anthropologists who write up their field notes at the end of the day. Sailors keep logs as do lab scientists. And lots of writers and visual artists do their own versions, too. This is why I call my blog “Field Notes.”

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