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Cynthia Ford's avatar

Yes, really lovely talk. I love the idea of the layers of presence in a landscape. During the early days of the pandemic, I could've sworn the long dead were present in the park near my house in Detroit. So palpable, weirdly, and the poem with your wife and the catalpa was beautiful. Strangely I was just this morning thinking of the catalpa near the Rouge in the park, planted as a fish bait tree, by the bridge, which is now named, in a tone deaf way, The Rainbow Bridge. Huge dollars have flowed in to suburbanize this park, meaning pesticides and crew cutting of grasses, and numbering of the shelters. So deadening. We call the hill they created Mt. Gentrification. Restorative shining ideas in this talk and incantatory poems, calling forth the old and lost from exile.

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The Druid Stares Back's avatar

Where in Detroit are you? I'm from the Six Mile and Telegraph area.

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Kalle Kula's avatar

The one with the crane is wild!

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Bush Hermit's avatar

Do you own your land or does your land own you? It does feel like the more you do on the land with animals and fruit trees etc the stronger the connection becomes.

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Kathryn Oliver's avatar

Really beautiful Michael!

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The Druid Stares Back's avatar

thanks!

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Travis Wade ZINN's avatar

Beautiful talk -thank you

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Bush Hermit's avatar

I wonder if people can still get lost in the unreal, in the fairie. Or is the fairie not the unreal? On a totally different note, I was wondering what the Druid thinks about the Midwest music scene over the years. The Replacements, Husker Du, J Giles Band, or any other Midwest bands of interest.

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The Druid Stares Back's avatar

Never got into Husker Du, but one of the best shows I ever attended was The Replacements at Saint Andrew's Hall in Detroit. At least the first 30 minutes. After that--get this--they were almost too drunk to perform!

J Geils was huge in Detroit, even before they got huge with “Freeze Frame” etc. Their album ‘Full House’ is quintessential Detroit working class white kid playlist material from my teenage years.

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Bush Hermit's avatar

Thanks, it was a pretty interesting music era. But, like your son said, Dad, why are you not famous?

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The Druid Stares Back's avatar

I know, right? 😂

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Bush Hermit's avatar

You might have ended up like the Replacements though, the pressure broke them.

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The Druid Stares Back's avatar

you don’t know how true that is

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Bush Hermit's avatar

Something like, hold my life, I might lose it; The Replacements.

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