Research as Poetic Rumination: Twenty-Six Ways of Listening to Light

I search for a poetics of research in long walks on the dike where I listen to light, smell the line of a heron startled into slow motion by my presence, taste the screeches of eagles and hawks, poke with the roots of alders and aspens into the black earth, see the scent of the seasons. In my walking and researching, I hear ducks laughing in the slough along the dike, and my research question laughs with the ducks: What are the ducks laughing about? I do not ask the question in order to answer the question; I ask the question, again and again, in order to know the question. My research is really about opening my ears and eyes and tongue and skin and nose and lungs and heart and spirit, to learn to laugh with the ducks.