Jumping Spider (Arachnophobia Alert!)

Rae Spencer8 Comments

I found a jumping spider in the irises, and, after taking my usual maximum-distance/maximum-zoom spider photos, I bolted away in an arachnophobia panic gathered my courage for some macro shots.

The spider seemed fascinated by the camera. Maybe it saw a foe in the lens? Maybe it simply wanted to climb? Whatever its motive, I was terrified by impressed by the spider’s jumping ability.

Every time I moved the camera within macro range, the spider darted forward and leapt onto the lens. I got several blurry way-too-close-ups.

I also had a few too many “where did it go?!” moments.

Even so, I’m happy to have these photos for the archive. There’s something appealing, to me, about the spider’s “expression”.

After our photo session, the spider climbed onto the pear tree. Its camouflage was so complete that I soon lost sight of it.

I won’t be adopting a spider as a pet anytime soon, but it’s getting easier to photograph them.

Another Black Widow Spider (Arachnophobia Alert!)

Rae Spencer5 Comments

We are still finding black widow spiders in the yard and garage. Hopefully this winter will be cold enough to eradicate the majority of them.

Review: A Strange Frenzy

Rae Spencer1 Comment

A Strange Frenzy:  17 poems by Dom Gabrielli
(unbound CONTENT, 2012)

This smart, nuanced little chapbook pairs each of its seventeen poems with a quote from Rumi. Printed in an interesting horizontal format, complete with delicate artwork, the airy expanses of white space invite marginalia.

The author’s short introduction asks “From what star in the skies of the Outside do these poems gather their light?” These poems glimmer and burn with a unique light of their own, making no attempt to outshine Rumi’s timeless quotes. In fact, the poems are stripped of punctuation and mostly devoid of capitalization, as if deliberately deferential to the accompanying quotes.

Despite their unassuming arrangement on the page, these poems are refined. And, while love is the unifying theme, this is not a collection of love poems.

“once i courted a diamond / to cut my wrists / in the thunderstorm of battle / and love poured down like rain” (Poem II, page 11)

“i say me / i should eliminate it / i should stretch it out / and flatten every notion of person” (Poem IX, page 25)

“every drink they offer is poison // all the food they have is dangerous // if you do not eat // you shall starve” (Poem XII, page 31)

I’m delighted to add A Strange Frenzy to my poetry shelf, and I’m already looking forward to the moment, perhaps years from now, when I pull it down from the shelf and discover its poems anew.

  • Author Dom Gabrielli and unbound CONTENT publisher Annmarie Lockhart discussed A Strange Frenzy in this blog talk radio episode.
  • Poem II appears on the poemblog at vox poetica.

First Landing State Park, October 11

Rae Spencer9 Comments

I woke this morning with the urge to make an audio recording of frog song. Nature seldom cooperates, when my plans are that specific, and today was no exception. Yesterday, one of the park’s small ponds was a cacophony of harsh croaks and lyrical trills. Today it was mostly silent. Here’s why:

So I have no audio to share. Instead I have sunlight and woodpeckers…

First Landing State Park, October 10

Rae Spencer1 Comment

First Landing State Park is beginning to feel the onset of fall. The osprey are migrating, leaving egrets and herons in charge. Grasshoppers carry on as if winter will never come, but the butterflies know better. They’ve disappeared, along with most of the bees. (I did see something that might have been a bee, but it also might have been a fly that wanted me to think it was a bee.)

Despite these changes, summer hasn’t abandoned the park entirely. Mosquitoes still bite and squirrels still play. Crabs forage while frogs sing a frantic final chorus. Turtles patrol the shallow ponds, their backs mounded with mud so that they look like curiously mobile islands.

And the sun is still strong enough to burn if you stay out too long. Like I did today. But I have a good excuse for my over-long walk and uncomfortable sunburn. I was chasing a kingfisher…

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