Wordcatcher by Phil Cousineau

Author:Phil Cousineau
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cleis Press
Published: 2010-08-15T16:00:00+00:00

Gorgonize

GOSSAMER

Gauzy, silky, flimsy. A mellifluous word; a diaphanous derivation. Seven centuries ago in 14th-century England, “goose” was gos, and “summer” was sumer, and together they referred to “goose-summer,” the time when “summer goose” appear, what we now call Indian summer. As hunters and hikers know, it’s the time of year when the “summer goose” are most seen, and since seen, hunted, and eaten; it’s also the time of year for those silken filaments of goose down that float through the air like flying cobwebs. To picture the phenomenon, imagine the gauzy veils worn by the Three Graces in Botticelli’s Primavera. Also, remember the uplifting photographs and video of Paul MacCready’s invention, “Gossamer Wings,” the first completely man-powered flight. Edgar Allan Poe wrote, “There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere man.”

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