A PERSON HIKES SIX MILES TO BOURN POND VIA THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL CARRYING BOTH VOLUMES OF THE ATLAS OF CONTEMPORARY WORLD ARCHITECTURE IN ORDER TO SUBMERGE THEM… THE HIKER RETURNS HOME WITH THE BOOKS… AND INTERTWINED, ALLOWS THEM TO DRY IN THE WIND.

there are geologic layers that form these mountains
the verts monts
these layers under this terrain
there is a supporting structure
layer upon layer built
and when the clouds cast shadows on the mountains it is another layer yet
the architecture of terra firma beneath
under the mountains under these trails
dictating this shape
the shape of these mountains and the trails that navigate them
separating the land, and consequently the canopy, and consequently the air, and the consequences of the error of my ways
always
surrounding me and separating us
the forest from the trees
again and again
undulating to form the skyline
this line is a space unto itself
the space I occupy

The Green and Taconic Mountains are part of the Appalachians, a complex mix of mountains formed by a series of continental collisions that took place over a period of more than 1 billion years.  All mountains are formed by one or more of three processes: convergence, subduction and volcanism. All of this movement is called “Continental Drift,” caused by the shifting of the Earth’s crust over the molten center as the earth spins around the solar system in space. These Mountains were formed by this movement.

all of this space
space as in distance and distance as in a measurable length
one traveled from this the closest location from me
to there the furthest location to you
it is as far as the eye can see
sometimes sublimation makes for an alternative destination
the space between us in bed the chasm that it is
because the slowest speeds or closest distances the eye cannot perceive either
the distance between the particles of ink in these letters as you stand there reading them now
still the divide between us is an expanse that will not be bridged
the rift made ever so slightly larger by the continental drift
and as the universe expands so does the rift, so does that divide
and if our bodies allowed for it, in a million years we could fit the planets between us

In geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth’s mantle, as the plates converge.  Rates of subduction are typically measured in centimeters per year, with the average rate of convergence being approximately 2 to 8 centimeters per year, about the rate of fingernail growth.

I explain to myself that you cannot see the birch trees or goldenrod grow during the day
but actually you can, you can see them grow, but you do not know you are watching them grow
or perhaps you do know, as I do, but simply cannot measurably observe them
and overnight they grow still why you are not watching
and you cannot see the goldenrod at night
you cannot see the birch trees or anything
for it is a world of silhouettes down here tonight
silhouettes from pole building lights
and a nation of farmers from the west work past dinner to silhouette that mountain

it’s semblance is of you lying on your left side... afterward... facing away

afterglow it is not
it is tired and wants to sleep
but it cannot
it never can

Scientists believe that the Green Mountains were formed over 400 million years ago and reached an elevation of approximately 8,000 feet beyond their current one.  They have slowly been eroded (worn down) by the forces of wind, water and ice to become the mountains we know today

the middle ground is the point of impact
the impact is very much the point
these formative events
the upheaval involved in the making of mountains
forever alter the landscape
this orogeny that is our urban time without nary an undulating skyline, save Gehry and his bandshell
has been a baptême du feu
because this journey to the mountains is the very thing that has divided us
driven by my compulsion to avenge my father’s fate at the hands of the structured industrialized world and parental obligations
together revealing themselves as “The vndiscouered Countrey; from whose Borne No Traueller returnes”

and we, betwixt these ranges
situated in this hamlet
find our moment
it comes to me as pellucid as the spring waters
flowing from beneath the land eternally refilling our glasses here

of how collisions of this kind always take time
you say you’ve waited long for this
and I think of how you can measure my growth on your fingertips

Continental collision is a phenomenon of plate tectonics that occurs at convergent boundaries. It is a variation on the fundamental process of subduction, whereby the subduction zone is destroyed, mountains produced, and two continents sutured together whereby the continental crust is rippled and folded above the line of impact.  The Taconic mountain range was formed from the collision of the North American Plate into a volcanic island arc around 440 million years ago.  The eastern side of the Taconics are divided from the Green Mountains when they fall off abruptly into the river valleys.

[BOOKS, WOODEN PLATFORM - performance / sculpture]

2010