Elizabeth Bishop and Fire Balloons
February 28, 2009 6:02 PM   Subscribe

The Armadillo (with audio) by Elizabeth Bishop + Lantern Festival"... between the kite sticks of the Southern Cross, receding, dwindling, solemnly and steadily forsaking us, or, in the downdraft from a peak, suddenly turning dangerous. Last night another big one fell. It splattered like an egg of fire against the cliff behind the house. The flame ran down. We saw the pair of owls who nest there flying up and up, their whirling black-and-white stained bright pink underneath, until they shrieked up out of sight. The ancient owls' nest must have burned. Hastily, all alone, a glistening armadillo left the scene, rose-flecked, head down, tail down, and then a baby rabbit jumped out, short-eared, to our surprise. So soft!—a handful of intangible ash with fixed, ignited eyes. Too pretty, dreamlike mimicry! O falling fire and piercing cry and panic, and a weak mailed fist clenched ignorant against the sky!"
posted by vronsky (9 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Yes, I did this back in the 1970's, albeit with polyethylene and hexamine.
posted by Tube at 6:40 PM on February 28, 2009


more lantern festivals -- so beautiful :)
posted by vronsky at 8:29 PM on February 28, 2009




Oh, check this one out -- 10,000 Loy Krathong ( Yi Peng ) Festival Lanterns Getting Released.
posted by vronsky at 9:49 PM on February 28, 2009


If I remember right, Henry James Sr., the unorthodox Swedenborgian father of novelist Henry James and the psychologist / pragmatic philosopher William James lost his leg in a childhood experiment with fire balloons. Apparently, he accidentally lit a barn afire, and tried to stomp it out.

Without fire balloons, and correspondingly frustrated and crazy fathers, where would American letters be?
posted by LucretiusJones at 9:52 PM on February 28, 2009 [2 favorites]


according to this video, "Sky lanterns are also known in English as Fire Lanterns, UFO balloons, Khoom Fay, Khom Loi as well as many other names."

"Yee Peng Lanna festival or Loy Kratong festival is an ancient and traditional festival which has been continued since the past.
In a past there was a sermons abbot the story of the last earthly existence of the Load Buddha and Lanna people decorated a temple or Vihara temple with banana tree and sugar cane.
Also, Front door Temple decoration with candle , moonshines ,fire-kites ,fire crackers and floating the offerings along the canal or river.
Yee Peng Lanna festival is also a kind of a Buddhist ceremony and Lanna people believed that it is a good chance for them to do good thing and hear a sermon to pay a respect to Buddha.
That it is a good chance to do good deed and to pay homage to the Lord Buddha."
posted by vronsky at 10:41 PM on February 28, 2009


The ancient owls' nest must have burned. Hastily, all alone, a glistening armadillo left the scene, rose-flecked, head down, tail down, and then a baby rabbit jumped out, short-eared, to our surprise. So soft!—a handful of intangible ash with fixed, ignited eyes. Too pretty, dreamlike mimicry! O falling fire and piercing cry and panic, and a weak mailed fist clenched ignorant against the sky!

This is about Bush and Obama, right?
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:46 PM on March 1, 2009


Are there no poetry nerds here? IANAPN, but I think this is a very interesting piece--don't write 'em like that anymore--and would love to hear a more positive reaction than my initial cynical on (and I LIKE the poem)... So...what about the poem?
posted by Mngo at 6:11 PM on March 1, 2009


"Are there no poetry nerds here?" Well I don't know about the nerd part, but this post is as much about Bishop as it is Chinese lanterns. From The Moose.

...
Goodbye to the elms,
to the farm, to the dog.
The bus starts. The light
grows richer; the fog,
shifting, salty, thin,
comes closing in.

Its cold, round crystals
form and slide and settle
in the white hens' feathers,
in gray glazed cabbages,
on the cabbage roses
and lupins like apostles;

the sweet peas cling
to their wet white string
on the whitewashed fences;
bumblebees creep
inside the foxgloves,
and evening commences.
...
posted by vronsky at 12:17 PM on March 2, 2009 [1 favorite]


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