occasional posts by risa aratyr
Risa Aratyr De breeze come blow ‘pon it, De rain come down wet it, De flood come deluge it, De sun come down bu’n it, Grudgeful man come obeah it, Red-eye people put dem mout’ ‘pon it, But never was moved a nail from it, For it was built ‘pon a rocky groun’, With a rock for … Read more BE-COMING HOME: getting down to fundamentals
He who cannot find footing, cannot go forward. [Harry Emerson Fosdick] Once things got going at the site, they went quickly indeed. As soon as the excavation was done, the cement trucks appeared – – and the first footings were poured. By 17 June, the trucks were gone, and the footings had sprouted a young … Read more BE-COMING HOME: finding our footing
Whenever I pass a building site or see somebody digging a ditch, I always think, “That’s real work.” [Liam Neeson] During the design part of the process, Roy and I were keen to fix things that had been bugging us for the past 16 years. Old house, people couldn’t find the front door; new house, … Read more BE-COMING HOME: dug & dusted
Oh! ye’ll take the high road and I’ll take the low road, And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye… [“The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond” traditional tune, lyrics penned by a MacGregor of Glen Endrick, 1746] The choice to rebuild left us stranded at another crossroads. How to get “home” from here? Our Way or … Read more BE-COMING HOME: breaking ground
蔵焼けて 障るものなき 月見哉 Barn’s burnt down. Now I can see the moon. [a haiku by Mizuta Masahide, 17th C. poet and samurai] From the look of her, you’d have thought The Ruin would have gone down on her own the first time a strong wind hit the hill. She was a life-threatening public hazard in … Read more BE-COMING HOME: on the level