update from sparkleup
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@ -23,9 +23,9 @@ When I studied music, back in university, back as I was starting to get into sof
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<p>A day, a week, a month, they all spiral, for any one Sunday is like the previous and the next shall be much the same, but the you who experiences the differing Sundays is different. It is a spiral, proceeding steadfastly onward. A day is a spiral, with each morning much the same as the one before and the one after. A month, following the cycle of the moon</p>
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<p>But a year, in particular, spirals up. It carries embedded within it a certain combination of pattern, count, and duration that delineates our lives better than any other cyclical unit of time. Yes, a day is divided into night and day, and those liminal dusks and dawns, but there are <em>so many of them</em>. There are so many days in a life, and there are so many in a year that to see the spiral within them does not come as easily.</p>
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<p>Our years are delineated by the seasons, though, and the count of them is so few, and the duration long enough that we can run up against that first scent of snow late in the autumn and immediately be kicked down one level of the spiral in our memories. What were we doing the last time we smelled that non-scent? What about the time before?</p>
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<p>The power of the cyclical nature of the year is of an importance that draws the heart onward, and that which moves the heart is fair game for poetry. The demarcations for this cycle are the two solstices, with secondary markers at the equinoxes. One finds oneself at the longest night of the year and knows that, from there onwards, it is downhill into summer.[^slopes] One finds oneself at the longest day of the year and before oneself lies cooler times.</p>
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<p>The power of the cyclical nature of the year is of an importance that draws the heart onward, and that which moves the heart is fair game for poetry. The demarcations for this cycle are the two solstices, with secondary markers at the equinoxes. One finds oneself at the longest night of the year and knows that, from there onwards, it is downhill into summer.<sup id="fnref:slopes"><a class="footnote-ref" href="#fn:slopes">1</a></sup> One finds oneself at the longest day of the year and before oneself lies cooler times.</p>
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<p>Dwale (1979–2021; it/its) was a poet living in the Southern United States. Its work is described as focusing on “altered states of consciousness…poverty, addiction, subjectivity, and the transience of existence” \parencite{dwale}, though to reduce its body of work to any or all of those provides an inexact picture of its writing. This will be touched on in a future section on translation, but needless to say, this paper will focus on its work through the lens of seasonal progression. </p>
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<p>The concept of seasons and seasonality is well known within poetry. Exploring that is beyond the scope of this paper.[^abilities] To rely on synecdoche is the best one can manage with a topic so large. To that end, it is worth exploring the poetry of Dwale in such a context.</p>
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<p>The concept of seasons and seasonality is well known within poetry. Exploring that is beyond the scope of this paper.<sup id="fnref:abilities"><a class="footnote-ref" href="#fn:abilities">2</a></sup> To rely on synecdoche is the best one can manage with a topic so large. To that end, it is worth exploring the poetry of Dwale in such a context.</p>
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<h2 id="spring">Spring</h2>
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<p>Spring is commonly associated with newness and beginnings. New growth, new life, new warmth under a new sun. On of green things: of buds greening bare trees, of grass poking through late snows, or perhaps the greenery of gardening as one buys flats of flowers or sows vegetable seeds in the expectation of a harvest later on.</p>
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<p>Spring is also associated with growth. It’s the time when plants race toward the heavens, or leaves burst out from reanimated branches seemingly overnight. It’s the time when you can almost feel your hair growing, or perhaps your dreams swelling in some sympathetic expansion of their own</p>
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@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ Six months ‘til winter
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\parencite{dwale_haiku}</div>
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<p>While we are verging into the territory of summer, here, we do get a sense of those expectations settling into place, a feeling of “ah, so the year is going to be like <em>this</em>”. We also get that sense of growth and greenness with the mention of kudzu, a plant known for its rampant growth, quickly covering all it can in green.</p>
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<p>Some of the reason for this paucity of spring-themed poetry is doubtless selection bias: a chapbook titled <em>Face Down in the Leaves</em>, with its cover of frost-rimed leaf-litter, is unlikely to contain any paeans to new growth.</p>
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<p>Instead, we are presented with works that focus on the fact that spring is also the time for harrowing. It’s the time for tearing up that which was old, the earth that was compacted by time and snow, in order to make room for that growth which is going to come soon, whether we like it or not (the topic of unwanted growth is a topic for later in the year[^weeds])</p>
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<p>Instead, we are presented with works that focus on the fact that spring is also the time for harrowing. It’s the time for tearing up that which was old, the earth that was compacted by time and snow, in order to make room for that growth which is going to come soon, whether we like it or not (the topic of unwanted growth is a topic for later in the year<sup id="fnref:weeds"><a class="footnote-ref" href="#fn:weeds">3</a></sup>)</p>
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<p>This untitled work will stand as our example:</p>
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<div class="verse">The seasonal storms have poured upon the grassy flat,
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The leafless stalks abound like thirsty mouths.
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@ -292,11 +292,8 @@ It was evening all afternoon.
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It was snowing
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And it was going to snow.
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The blackbird sat
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In the cedar-limbs.
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## Works cited
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In the cedar-limbs.</div>
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<h2 id="works-cited">Works cited</h2>
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<div class="codehilite"><pre><span></span><code><span class="nv">@book</span><span class="err">{</span><span class="n">leaves</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="w"></span>
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<span class="w"> </span><span class="n">title</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">=</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="ss">"Face Down in the Leaves"</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="w"></span>
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<span class="w"> </span><span class="n">author</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">=</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="ss">"Dwale"</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="w"></span>
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@ -387,17 +384,20 @@ In the cedar-limbs.
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<span class="err">}</span><span class="w"></span>
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</code></pre></div>
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## Notes
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[^slopes]: I am not sold on this metaphor; uphill bears both positive and negative connotations, and it is difficult to say which to apply when. Ask a poet.
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[^abilities]: Or perhaps my abilities as an author.
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[^weeds]: Or perhaps later in life, when cancer may rear its ugly head. It is proving quite difficult to write about even seasons of new growth and beginnings without death-thoughts creeping in.
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<h2 id="notes">Notes</h2>
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<div class="footnote">
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<hr />
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<ol>
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<li id="fn:slopes">
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<p>I am not sold on this metaphor; uphill bears both positive and negative connotations, and it is difficult to say which to apply when. Ask a poet. <a class="footnote-backref" href="#fnref:slopes" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text">↩</a></p>
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</li>
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<li id="fn:abilities">
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<p>Or perhaps my abilities as an author. <a class="footnote-backref" href="#fnref:abilities" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text">↩</a></p>
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</li>
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<li id="fn:weeds">
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<p>Or perhaps later in life, when cancer may rear its ugly head. It is proving quite difficult to write about even seasons of new growth and beginnings without death-thoughts creeping in. <a class="footnote-backref" href="#fnref:weeds" title="Jump back to footnote 3 in the text">↩</a></p>
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</li>
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</ol>
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</div>
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</article>
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<footer>
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