Saturday, September 27, 2014

Thoughts on the Autumn Equinox, An Abandoned Bridge, and Poetry Time!

The autumn equinox was a few days ago. I'm really dreading the Dark Days, the sunless time between November and mid January.

The Dark Days start to become really noticeable in November, when the sun sets before dinnertime, and the nights are 15 hours long.  You get up in the dark and leave work in the dark; and it seems to be cloudy and foggy most of the time. How depressing is that?

It's no surprise that that people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. I wonder how people, let's say up in Alaska cope with it.   There are cities and towns in Alaska, Canada, Siberia, and Scandinavia located north of the Arctic Circle  that get no daylight between late November and sometime in January.  It must be really weird to live in 24 hour darkness.  I wonder how they cope: sun lamps? solariums? megadoses of Vitamin D? Antidepressants?  It's probably all of these combined.

Right now it feels more like late summer, so it isn't too bad. It doesn't hurt to go outside yet, and there's still plenty of light.

Speaking of summer, I haven't written here in a while.  Most of the time I've been out enjoying the sun before it disappears for another winter.

My husband and I went kayaking on the Connecticut River near Northfield, Massachusetts earlier this month and I didn't bring the camera since I like to travel light. The quality of pictures that can be taken with Smartphones never ceases to amaze me, especially when I enlarge them to fit in an 8 1/2 x 11 picture frame, but for this blog, the small version will have to do.

This photo is a bridge in the autumn of its life span (pardon the pun)  since it has been closed to traffic since 1985.  The Powers That Be have not yet figured out whether whether it will be rehabilitated or demolished. It would be a shame to destroy this bridge because it's such a beautiful backdrop.  No one builds structures like this anymore.

Abandoned Bridge, September, 2014 Copyright © 2014 Katley Demetria Brown

Since inquiring minds want to know, I looked it up on Wikipedia , where you can find just about everything. Not only did this bridge have a name (the Schell Bridge), but quite a bit of history as well. The article also mentioned something there about adding it to the National Register of Historic Places. I really hope it doesn't get demolished.  There is something both poignant and scary about going under an abandoned bridge  in a small boat.  My thought was.....what if this thing falls down?

Here is a photo of another bridge that I took on the same trip: the Amtrak Railroad Bridge.  A train crossed the bridge right before I took this picture; it was on its way to Vermont.

Amtrak Railroad Bridge, September 2014 Copyright © 2014 Katley Demetria Brown

If you wonder why I find bridges fascinating, I grew up in New York City, a place surrounded by water and hundreds of bridges. The suspension bridges are especially beautiful at night when the lights are on.

This month's poem is Water Remembers. One day the Schell bridge may become just a memory which is why I wrote about it.  There never seems to be enough money to fix roads and bridges, but there is plenty of money to wage The War on Terror.  One day there will be a tragedy related to a bridge collapse or faulty roads and then I'll be telling the Powers That Be "I told you so."


Water remembers

most people would doubt this

after all it's a substance

that follows the path

of least resistance

it moves and it's alive

the river remembers all

it has heard the melodies

of many civilizations

seen many celebrations

bridges and boats

mountains and cities

and visions of love

along its banks

it has been reincarnated

many times

just like you and me

we carry the memories with us

forever

and see them in our dreams

the river is eternal

and water remembers

If you enjoyed this, there is a post on my other blog, The Alien Diaries, Crossing the River, Part Four about the bridge between Calafat and Vidin, with videos and music.  It is worth a look, especially if you like music from the Balkans. There are many other posts there on a variety of topics, all related in one way or another to Balkan music and dance.

One of my Pinterest boards has pictures of bridges  in Europe and the United States.

Copyright © 2014 Katley Demetria Brown. Site Designed by Katley Demetria Brown. All Rights Reserved.
Water Remembers ©2010 Katley Demetria Brown

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