“A large part of improvisational imagination is fresh
juxtaposition.” (119, Asma)
Brian Bartlett in Branches
Over Ripples: A Waterside Journal could be said to be writing a
conventional daily nature journal. What is different, what makes it a true work
of the imagination is “fresh juxtaposition.”
Bartlett has been a naturalist since childhood, is now at 64 a poet, a
teacher, a critic. He is one of those lucky bird watchers who remembers and can
identify bird songs. He has observed closely, has a fine memory, goes on his
trips well-prepared with a backpack containing various guide books as well as
pen and paper, binoculars, water, snack. One of his fresh juxtapositions in
this book is limiting his nature walks to places on water: seaside, riverside,
lakeside. This narrowing provides unusual connections—one thing reminds him of
another, what is different between the river and the ocean, between the flora
and fauna of Nova Scotia and that of Kansas. It allows memory to bring forth
relevant anecdotes and facts. It also provides coherence, continuity,
structure.
On August 4, 2013, a Sunday, Bartlett arrives at 1:31 PM at
Cranberry Lake, Five Bridges Wilderness Area, Halifax County, NS. “For the next
few hours and beyond, sounds of lake water nudging granite likely won’t stop
for more than a moment or two.” (108) He
writes a paragraph about other sounds, and because he is a poet, he describes
them vividly: “lightly rattling deciduous-bush branches.” “To talk separately
about water sounds and wind sounds ignores their kinship.” In the next
paragraph he describes another sound, “A Red-Breasted Nuthatch gave its nasal
call.” He writes seven more sentences about that bird song in particular. To
write so extensively about these various sounds is unusual, a fresh juxtaposition.
Mating damselflies “made no sound.” They look “less
substantial than dragonflies and butterflies, like paper blinds rather than
stained glass.”
Connections: the Tent Caterpillars choking the Meadowsweet
reminds him of the signs at the beginning of the trail warning of coyotes and
moose. The caterpillars’ violence is “brutally effective”, a startling metaphor
linking the caterpillar and the moose.
