While David, Janie and the girls were here we attended the Tucson Festival of Books on the campus of the University of Arizona. This two-day event attracted over 100,000 people and over 450 authors and 240 exhibitors. The event includes a lot of hands-on activities , presentations and reading for all age groups illustrating how “words and imagination come to life.” A very impressive event, indeed.
This glass sphere is in the lobby area of the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona.
On February 10, 2011, the Tanuri Ridge Education & Recreation Series program was given by the University of Arizona, College of Optical Sciences, Professor Emeritus (and Tanuri Ridge Resident) Bill Wolfe, on “Optics In Nature.” The following information on Bill is from the College of Optical Sciences website:
Bill Wolfe joined the Optical Sciences Center in 1969 and retired in 1995 after a 26-year career. He received his undergraduate degree in physics from Bucknell University and earned postgraduate degrees in physics and electrical engineering at the University of Michigan. A noted author and researcher in optical engineering, Bill helped translate the study of optics in ways we can all understand and appreciate. His contributions to space programs, military defense, and commercial applications have defined a productive, innovative, and successful career in infrared optics. Bill generously established this scholarship to honor his family and support graduate students pursuing careers in infrared optics.
After Bill’s presentation, we toured the College of Optical Sciences on the University of Arizona campus.
Do you have a “Moon Tree” where you live. There is currently one Moon Tree in Tucson, located outside the Kuiper Space Sciences Building at the University of Arizona. My next project will be to find another in Tucson. One of my new projects will be to find another moon tree in the Tucson area.
kenne
The Freedom of the Moon by Robert Frost
I’ve tried the new moon tilted in the air Above a hazy tree-and-farmhouse cluster As you might try a jewel in your hair. I’ve tried it fine with little breadth of luster, Alone, or in one ornament combining With one first-water start almost shining.
I put it shining anywhere I please. By walking slowly on some evening later, I’ve pulled it from a crate of crooked trees, And brought it over glossy water, greater, And dropped it in, and seen the image wallow, The color run, all sorts of wonder follow.
Seated in the back, while others stand checking the view. Outside retractable walls, in choice of place, we gathered as, “Largest crowd in recent memory!” repeated through the Poetry Center. Staging a Zen evening, six persimmons a backdrop for laying down the words, Gary Snyder shared anecdotal memories of friendship. Fifty years since Robert Frost read at the Ruth Stephan Poetry Cottage dedication, fifty years out, Snyder reminisced about friend, writer, and philanthropist, Ruth Stephan.
“Poetry is the food of the spirit, and spirit is the instigator of all revolutions, whether political or personal, whether national, world-wide, within the life of a single quiet human being. “
People want to know,
Why Tucson?
With so many roots tied
to the star,
deep and connected,
why turn a back
To comfort?
To convince?
To culture?
Reasons abound
answers diverse,
yet similar.
Some old,
some recently learned.
More often than not
my answer is earthy,
yet ethereal.
Of another world,
yet of one world.
Answers giving birth
as hawks circle
riding the currents
above the foothills
gawking the ground
providing a Gary Snyder image
clear of mind
having no meaning, “but that
which sees is truly seen.”
— kenne
One of my favorite poets, Gary Snyder will be reading at the University of Arizona Poetry Center, October 7th. Lawrence Ferlinghetti has called Snyder, “the Thoreau of the Beat Generation.” He is a political, cultural, and environmental activist with superb writing skills, which allow him to effectively connect with the reader and listener in a very basic way. Here’s an example:
The shack and a few trees
float in the blowing fog
I pull out your blouse,
warm my cold hands
on your breasts.
you laugh and shudder
peeling garlic by the
hot iron stove.
bring in the axe, the rake,
the wood
we’ll lean on the wall
against each other
stew simmering on the fire
as it grows dark
drinking wine.
This glass sphere is in the lobby area of the College of Optical Sciences at the 
A Community Expresses Itself: Virginia, Joy & Jeri (Right side of photo) at University Medical Center in Tucson — Image by kenne
