VIS210: major project musings

"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars..."
- Walt Whitman

We recently moved to a 500 acre cow farm outside of Maleny in Qld. It's silent, majestic, open, vast and green as far as the eye can see. Quite a change from the dense, noisy clamouring of the rainforest and wildlife we're used to! Apart from the cows (and the joys of wading through manure and flies in summer), grass is the loudest and most vibrant element of this place. So... a desire to look closer at grass, to feel it's life as singular and unique and to give it my whole attention for a while.

I used Song of Myself in Walt Whitman's book of poetry, Leaves of Grass as an entry point to this major project. This poem is hypnotic and mesmerising in voice. It celebrates the diversity and unity of all of life and uses grass as a metaphor throughout. We're in ten million different forms but we're here together, each with a specific space to inhabit and a role to fulfil that only we alone can. Leaves of grass speaks of equality and universality expressed in every single blade of grass. There's an intelligence and divinity in the design of these spears that's noticeable if we don't take it's ubiquitousness for granted. For grass is the stuff we all become eventually and we walk on the "uncut hair of graves" of all those who've been before us. In the end, I too, like Walt, "bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, if you want me again look for me under your bootsoles."