A fatal iridescence
A blade of grass has dipped into the water, and moved by the wind, has acted like a needle and etched the movement of the wind onto the surface of the water much like a scientific chart recorder would.
A blade of grass has dipped into the water, and moved by the wind, has acted like a needle and etched the movement of the wind onto the surface of the water much like a scientific chart recorder would.
A blade of grass has dipped into the water, and moved by the wind, has acted like a needle and etched the movement of the wind onto the surface of the water much like a scientific chart recorder would.
A blade of grass has dipped into the water, and moved by the wind, has acted like a needle and etched the movement of the wind onto the surface of the water much like a scientific chart recorder would.
Here, on the surface of humically darkened and acid pools in an ancient marshland (Thursely Common), the microbiological world reveals itself, and also the activity of other creatures, and the wind.
Occasionally on the surface of an undisturbed and natural pond, a fragile and iridescent film will form. Often dismissed as just pollution, these brittle layers are in fact entirely natural, and are formed by the activity of resident iron and manganese oxidising bacteria. The films are so thin, that they able diffract light, so that they shimmer with the colours of the spectrum and have their own inherent beauty. Beyond this, these delicate films uniquely record what must be one of Nature’s most fleeting and difficult to capture phenomena, that is the footfall of small animals and insects that dwell on the surface of water (Epineustons). In addition, where a blade of grass dips into the water, and is moved by the wind, it acts like a needle and etches the movement of the wind onto the surface of the water much like a scientific chart recorder would.
What ephemeral poems would poets etch into this fragile and metallic vellum?
