APRIL 3: Elisabeth Levac
The Topographic Scale of Power (Ruins reign over the Earth)
We, the ruins, reign over the earth.
Constructions that once stood
Tall and proud
Now lay in pieces.
As whatever reign that falls down
will give rise to ruins
For the passage from reigns to ruins,
Is inevitably followed by the arrival of a new reign.
Consider the famous Arles amphiteather.
Long after the roman empire collapsed
Inhabitants built houses inside the arenes
Using stones from the amphiteather
Ruining it to build a new city.
The same goes with mountains.
They lay tall
They look grand
But nevertheless
Erosion occurs
Gravity does its work
And fragments of spectacular features
Travel in rivers, all the way to the ocean
Filling these basins that cover most of the Earth.
With ruins from mountains: mud.
We, the ruins, indeed reign over the earth.
We rule by our sheer abundance
And dominance of the Earth’s surface.
We reign for when we rise
From the depths of the ocean
To the top of the world
We become majestic mountains
That overlook everything.
Thus, the tallest topography
Is made of the ruins
Of the grandest of landscape
In an endless cycle of reigns and ruins
That has nothing to do
With changes in power
Or demise of a ruling class
But is merely controlled
By physical processes
And the changing elevation
Of a feature relative to others.
As such, human societies
Are the same as mountains
With rulers succeeding each other
And interest groups rising or falling
Along the topographic scale of power.
Elizabeth Levac I always loved everything that had to do with nature, and I teach in Environment and Geography at Bishop`s University. My passions are geology and trees. I observe trees for my own personal interest but also because this relates to my research on pollen and allergies. In my free time, I like to transcribe on paper what the spirit of the time suggests, and to indulge myself in a freer writing style than that of technical reports and scientific articles.
J`ai toujours aimé tout ce qui touche à la nature et j`enseigne en environnement et en géographie à l’université Bishop’s. Mes passions sont la géologie et l’observation des arbres, par intérêt personnel et aussi en lien avec mes recherches sur le pollen et les allergies. Dans mes temps libres, j`aime bien transcrire sur papier les impressions que l’air du temps me souffle, et m’adonner à une forme d’écriture plus libre que celle des rapports techniques et articles scientifiques.