The great Tangled Bank writhes and blooms just beyond our ordinary sight, a mass of actin and cellulose and chitin a maelstrom of energy the combined activities of individuals countless more numerous than the stars in the universe.
In the beginning there was but a single seed within the sandy shores of the Ocean. The light of Sol poured down across the grounds and waters, cracking the surface of the seed, it's germination begun. A sprout came forth, burst through the surface, emerged into this universe. Slowly at first it grew, cool winds and storms coaxing and cracking it's branches, and in the third day, the form suddenly changed it burst into bloom and spread accross the surface of the earth. The Tangled Bank, the Thorned and Flowered Bush.
The mages of old saw it as a great tree, but that is only one aspect.
It is the mangroves, and the the forests of rain and fog.
It is the oceans deep and shallow, the mountain streams and the coastal rivers.
It is the outwash of glaciers and the hot springs, and the deep ocean vents, the caves and veins shot through the strata.
It is the deserts, the grasslands and the tundra.
It is 50 million kinds of Life in tandem, the buds of a billion branches, the flowers of those that continued. Each branch is a lineage, each node a story of vicariance, of birth and separation, each dead and cut stem a deletion, only found in the bones of the earth.
Oh, such lovelyness, such unfathomable beauty, such complex majesty!
We are the readers, the diviners of this ancient wisdom the branches of the Tangled Bank, the true sooth sayers reading the cast stones of nature.
Nice. This series should be illustrated.
Quote from: Doktor Howl on May 07, 2010, 07:46:04 PM
Nice. This series should be illustrated.
It could work. There's quite a bit of imagery in it. Comes from the metaphor.
But who would be able to do these subjects justice? Not that I'm a great writer, but subjects like the Tangled Bank are not ones to be taken lightly.