Inverted Syntax
Online Issue Two
Memory Ephemeris (a constellation)
Megan Spiegel
Ephemeris, n. /ɪˈfɛmərɪs/ – from Latin ephēmeris, Greek ἐϕημερίς: diary. A compendium listing the positions of notable celestial objects by date; may be used in navigation, divination.
Telescope
Date: Summer 2001 through Winter 2002
Location: 43.453946, -124.276394
The way light is gathered in, brought close — not as close as she hoped — but enough to resolve into clarity, to separate into multiples — pointillist star clusters, or the smear of nebulae.
The way she learns to aim the telescope by removing the eyepiece and inserting a flashlight, its narrow beam reflecting outward to pinpoint extrasolar objects, a spotlight into deep distance.
Telescope
Date: Summer 2001 through Winter 2002
Location: 43.453946, -124.276394
The way light is gathered in, brought close — not as close as she hoped — but enough to resolve into clarity, to separate into multiples — pointillist star clusters, or the smear of nebulae.
The way she learns to aim the telescope by removing the eyepiece and inserting a flashlight, its narrow beam reflecting outward to pinpoint extrasolar objects, a spotlight into deep distance.
"The Practical Astronomer", by Thomas Dick LL.D., Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, London, (1845), p. 99 , http://www.gutenberg.org/files/54420/54420-h/54420-h.htm
The way she learns the patterns of the stars — their names, references, mythology: Antares, dark heart of Scorpio, low in the southern summer sky. The triangle, Vega, Deneb, Altair. Orion in the clear winter. Talismans, markers of passage season to season — she locates them to position herself in space, in the cycle of time.
The rest of Spiegel's "Memory Ephemeris" pieces can be found in Inverted Syntax's Issue Two, coming February 2020.
Megan Spiegel is the author of Luminance (2019, Dancing Girl Press). She is a graduate of the multi-genre MFA program at Western Washington University, and serves as Hybrid Genre Editor at Psaltery & Lyre. Her poetry, prose, and collaborative work has appeared in various print and online journals, such as Ghost Proposal, Vinyl, Sweet, and Fugue. She lives with her family and makes things in the Pacific Northwest.
About the work: “To balance a creative life with family and a day job, I’ve learned to hold tightly to the things that sustain me: a journal practice that includes writing, drawing, and tarot work; reading widely and voraciously; and looking deeply at the world. In the Pacific Northwest where I live, the summer days are long and the winters so dark. I spend a lot of time attending to patterns of light: photographing shadows through the wavy glass windows of my old house, filling my kitchen with candles, noticing the colors of the sky. These things inform my writing projects, built from fragments that come in short bursts. I write to fit the shape of my days.
My work combines elements of poetry, essay, and visual art, and takes various forms. "Memory Ephemeris" is a work of memoir in the form of lyric essay or prose poetry. It includes dates and GPS coordinates, allowing the essay to be mapped spatially and temporally. All diagrams and illustrations included in the essay come from public domain sources, and each speaks to the segment it accompanies."
Megan Spiegel is the author of Luminance (2019, Dancing Girl Press). She is a graduate of the multi-genre MFA program at Western Washington University, and serves as Hybrid Genre Editor at Psaltery & Lyre. Her poetry, prose, and collaborative work has appeared in various print and online journals, such as Ghost Proposal, Vinyl, Sweet, and Fugue. She lives with her family and makes things in the Pacific Northwest.
About the work: “To balance a creative life with family and a day job, I’ve learned to hold tightly to the things that sustain me: a journal practice that includes writing, drawing, and tarot work; reading widely and voraciously; and looking deeply at the world. In the Pacific Northwest where I live, the summer days are long and the winters so dark. I spend a lot of time attending to patterns of light: photographing shadows through the wavy glass windows of my old house, filling my kitchen with candles, noticing the colors of the sky. These things inform my writing projects, built from fragments that come in short bursts. I write to fit the shape of my days.
My work combines elements of poetry, essay, and visual art, and takes various forms. "Memory Ephemeris" is a work of memoir in the form of lyric essay or prose poetry. It includes dates and GPS coordinates, allowing the essay to be mapped spatially and temporally. All diagrams and illustrations included in the essay come from public domain sources, and each speaks to the segment it accompanies."
The Art
from
The New Gresham Encyclopedia, Volume IV Part 2
The drawing is from The New Gresham Encyclopedia, Volume IV Part 2, found at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35844/35844-h/35844-h.htm. It is associated with "Camera Obscura," a prose piece from Megan Spiegel's "Memory Ephemeris" collected prose poems published in Inverted Syntax print issue 2, available in February 2020.
