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Such a big word to take on. The definition runs three pages. And I am posting it under yesterday’s date, even though it is today, because time isn’t always linear.
After writing about gush, I walked to Journey’s End. Read Ted Berrigan on a rock next to the meander of water, the gush and ripple.
"Wan as pale thighs making apple belly strides..."
"Rain is a wet high harried face..."
"Smother of a sword / Into her quick weak heat."
Such lush lines you have to mouth them. River falling into a circle of days, the course it must follow. Started to route the day. On the way there, stairs cut for giants into the ravine, each step to my knee.
And then the farmer’s stand for organic tomatoes, first of the season, orange and ripe fruit sweet. Incredible pops of fullness. Strawberries and snap peas, a cucumber. The owner walking me out to his fields, talking about the rows of crops, 47 acres. Three fields. Then driving the dashed and curved roads. Snacking on sun and dirt and seed turned into conception in furrows, throwing stems out the window like litter but it was compost in the making.
Up to Smuggler’s Notch, a cave for hidden hoards Vermonter's brought from Canada during the revolution, escaping the tax burden, then a hike, almost straight up towards Sterling Lake. It reminded me of climbing the great wall in China, up, then up some more, the land here leaking water from all the rain. Layers and lines of green.
Then back to Jeffersonville. On the way, a covered bridge hanging air above a river, which I drove over and back, then a waterwheel in front of a house. Because it is Vermont, just more notes on the staff. And a Shed brown mountain ale in the setting sun, at the Village Tavern, which looked like Ireland, while I read more Berrigan, broken sonnets that have captivated me. On the way home I picked up a hitch-hiker, who is my new neighbor. He hitch-hikes every day to and from work, because people still do that around here, pick up their neighbors. It is his main mode of transportation, in 2015. Over 700 people work at the resort he works, a Wyndham hotel below Smuggler’s Notch. Which I didn’t realize is actually one of the highest passes in Vermont. Just seemed like a really nice and a little steep walk in the woods. But it is a thing.
And then back and still I didn’t get this blog done but I did write a letter, more lines on a page. Which matters. Talking. Twining.
My first day really off. A baseline.
line1
[līn/]
noun
1. a long, narrow mark or band.
synonyms: dash, rule, bar, score; underline, underscore, stroke, slash; stria, striation
MATHEMATICS a straight or curved continuous extent of length without breadth.
a positioning or movement of a thing or things that creates or appears to follow a line. course, route, track, path, way, run "a line of flight"
a furrow or wrinkle in the skin of the face or hands. wrinkle, furrow, crease, groove, crinkle, crow's foot, laugh lines; "there were lines around her eyes"
a contour or outline considered as a feature of design or composition. (configuration, shape, figure, delineation, profile)
(on a map or graph) a curve connecting all points having a specified common property.
a line marking the starting or finishing point in a race.
a line marked on a field or court that relates to the rules of a game or sport.
FOOTBALL the line of scrimmage.
the equator.
a notional limit or boundary, frontier, border, demarcation, dividing line, edge, margin, perimeter
each of the very narrow horizontal sections forming a television picture.
PHYSICS a narrow range of the spectrum noticeably brighter or darker than the adjacent parts.
the level of the base of most letters, such as h and x, in printing and writing.
PRINTING/COMPUTING denoting an illustration or graphic consisting of lines and solid areas, with no gradation of tone.
each of (usually five) horizontal lines forming a staff in musical notation.
a sequence of notes or tones forming an instrumental or vocal melody.
a dose of a powdered narcotic or hallucinatory drug, especially cocaine or heroin, laid out in a line.
2. a length of cord, rope, wire, or other material serving a particular purpose.
synonyms: clothesline; cord, rope, string, cable, wire, thread, twine, strand
a telephone connection.
a railroad track.
a branch or route of a railroad system.
a company that provides ships, aircraft, or buses on particular routes on a regular basis.
3. a horizontal row of written or printed words.
a part of a poem forming one row of written or printed words. sentence, phrase, clause, utterance; passage, extract, quotation, quote, citation
the words of an actor's part in a play or film (part, script, speech)
BRITISH an amount of text or number of repetitions of a sentence written out as a school punishment.
4. a row of people or things.
a row or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed.
a connected series of people following one another in time (used especially of several generations of a family); ancestry, family, parentage, birth, descent, lineage, extraction, genealogy, roots, origin, stock, bloodline, background, pedigree
(in football, hockey, etc.) a set of players in the forwardmost positions for offense or defense.
one of the positions on the line of scrimmage.
a series of related things."latest in a long line" (series, sequence, chain, string, set, cycle)
a range of commercial goods (brand, kind, type, variety, make)
a false or exaggerated account or story. (fabrication, spiel)
the point spread for sports events on which bets may be made.
5. an area or branch of activity. (line of work, business, field, trade, occupation, employment, profession, job, career, specialty, forte, province, department, sphere, area)
a direction, course, or channel. "lines of communication" (course of action, course, procedure, technique, tactic, tack; policy,practice, approach, plan, program, position, stance, philosophy) "they took a very tough line with the industry"
a manner of doing or thinking about something. (course, direction, drift, tack, tendency, trend) "her own line of thought"
an agreed-upon approach; a policy.
6. a connected series of military fieldworks or defenses facing an enemy force.
synonyms: position, formation, defense, fieldwork, front (line); trenches
an arrangement of soldiers or ships in a column or line formation; a line of battle. (row, file, lineup, queue)
regular army regiments (as opposed to auxiliary forces or household troops).
verb
1. stand or be positioned at intervals along. "a processional route lined by people waving flags" (border, edge, fringe, bound, rim)
2. mark or cover with lines. "a lined face"
synonyms: furrow, wrinkle, crease, pucker, mark with lines
3. BASEBALL hit a line drive.
line2
[līn/]
verb
1. cover the inside surface of with a layer of different material.
synonyms: put a lining in, interline, face, back, pad "they lined the handbags"
form a layer on the inside surface of (an area); cover as if with a lining.
2. to serve to cover:
3. to furnish or fill: "to line shelves with provisions."
4. to reinforce the back of a book with glued fabric, paper, vellum, etc.
noun
1. a thickness of glue, as between two veneers in a sheet of plywood.
Origin
late Middle English: from obsolete line ‘flax,’ with reference to the common use of linen for linings.
Old English līne ‘rope, series,’ probably of Germanic origin, from Latin linea (fibra ) ‘flax (fiber),’ from linum ‘flax,’ reinforced in Middle English by Old French ligne, based on Latin linea .
n.
a Middle English merger of Old English line "cable, rope; series, row, rowof letters; rule, direction," and Old French ligne "guideline, cord, string;lineage, descent;" both from Latin linea "linen thread, string, line," from phrase linea restis "linen cord," from fem. of lineus (adj.) "of linen," from linum "linen" Oldest sense is "rope, cord, string;" extended late 14c. to "a thread-like mark" (from sense "cord used by builders for making things level," mid-14c.), also "track, course, direction." Sense of "things or people arrangedin a straight line" is from 1550s. That of "cord bearing hooks used in fishing" is from c.1300. Meaning "one's occupation, branch of business" isfrom 1630s, probably from misunderstood KJV translation of 2 Cor. x:16,"And not to boast in another mans line of things made ready to our hand,"where line translates Greek kanon, literally "measuring rod." Meaning "class of goods in stock" is from 1834. Meaning "telegraph wire" is from1847 (later "telephone wire"). Meaning "policy or set of policies of a political faction" is 1892, AmericanEnglish, from notion of a procession of followers; this is the sense in partyline. In British army, the Line (1802) is the regular, numbered troops, asdistinguished from guards and auxiliaries. In the Navy (1704, e.g. ship ofthe line) it refers to the battle line. Lines "words of an actor's part" is from1882. Lines of communication were originally transverse trenches insiegeworks.
v.
"to cover the inner side of," late 14c., from Old English lin "linen cloth" Linen was frequently used in the Middle Ages as a secondlayer of material on the inner side of a garment. Related: Lined; lining.
late 14c., "to tie with a cord," from line (n.). Meaning "to mark or mark offwith lines" is from mid-15c. Sense of "to arrange in a line" is from 1640s;that of "to join a line" is by 1773. To line up "form a line" is attested by1889, in U.S. football.
