Ask The Meadow Grounds

Like so many others here in Detroit, I am drawn to our empty buildings. Why? I don't really know. I found my way to the following passage at Punk Archaeology via dolmens lost and found.

Ruins have the ability to conjure a certain type of melancholy that is like nothing else in human experience, I think. Did you know mourning over ruins is a major theme in Arabic poetry? One of my favorites:

At the way stations
stay. Grieve over the ruins.
Ask the meadow grounds,
now desolate, this question.

Where are those we loved,
where have their dark-white camels gone?

-Ibn Arabi


....from Stephennie Mulder, Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of Texas


This weekend, the Motor City Makeover continues, with cleaning and spruce-up events scheduled all over the city. A few of the possibilities:
-a Midtown event sponsored by Wayne State
-Historic Fort Wayne neighborhood
-St. Albertus
-Urban Farming Community Garden Planting
...or you could have your own mini-makeover. Grab a couple of trash bags and some gloves and head for your favorite neglected meadow in Detroit for an hour.


Ask the meadow grounds if they'd like a little company.