Dawn Light
Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day
New York : W.W. Norton & Co., [2009]
Format: Book
Edition: First edition.
Description: xiv, 240 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 22 cm
In an eye-opening sequence of personal meditations through the cycle of seasons, Diane Ackerman awakens us to the world at dawn--drawing on sources as diverse as meteorology, world religion, etymology, art history, poetry, organic farming, and beekeeping. As a patient and learned observer of animal and human physiology and behavior, she introduces us to varieties of bird music and other signs of avian intelligence, while she herself "migrates" from winter in Florida to spring, summer, and fall in upstate New York.Humans might luxuriate in the idea of being "in" nature, Ackerman points out, but we often forget that we are nature--for "no facet of nature is as unlikely as we, the tiny bipeds with the giant dreams." Joining science's devotion to detail with religion's appreciation of the sublime, Dawn Light is an impassioned celebration of the miracles of evolution--especially human consciousness of our numbered days on a turning earth.
Contents:
Prologue: a dawning pleasure -- Dawn mother -- Spring: Palm Beach, Florida. Dawn among the palms -- Just a little rain -- A calamity of cranes -- The lost night sky -- Forget bats -- Some tales we tell -- Venus observed -- In the spirit of Monet -- Festivals of the dawn -- Troubadours -- Missive -- Red dawns and fields of green -- Time races Dawn's many faces -- Summer: Ithaca, New York. Dangerous dawn -- In the spirit of Sei Shōnagon -- Dawn in the garden of cosmic reflection --Matins with the neighbors (two-legged and four) -- The solstice bird -- In the spirit of Hukusai -- On the ledge of the morning -- Dew drop in -- Where it's summer -- Woodpecker dawn -- Glory days -- Autumn.The murmuring of innumerable bees -- Honeycombing -- An angle on Archimedes -- A litle Sabbath with the sun -- Autumn dawn -- False dawn -- Nothing doing -- In the vase of the universe -- Clever as clever -- Field guides -- Winter. Where it's winter -- Water, water everywhere -- Crystals -- One bad rooster spoils the barnyard -- After hours -- The silence that is not there and the silence that is -- Time well spent.
Subjects:
Sei Shōnagon, approximately 967-
Monet, Claude, 1840-1926.
Katsushika, Hokusai, 1760-1849.
Satisfaction.
Meditations.
Human beings -- Effect of environment on.
Nature -- Psychological aspects.
Seasons -- Psychological aspects.
Palm Beach (Fla.)
Ithaca (N.Y.)
Sei Shōnagon, approximately 967-
Monet, Claude, 1840-1926.
Katsushika, Hokusai, 1760-1849.
Satisfaction.
Meditations.
Human beings -- Effect of environment on.
Nature -- Psychological aspects.
Seasons -- Psychological aspects.
Palm Beach (Fla.)
Ithaca (N.Y.)
ISBN:
9780393061734 (hardcover)
Availability | |||
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Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
LITERATURE Essays Ack | Main (Downtown) | Third Level, Nonfiction | In |