Troubling individuality

In Tew's day's mailbox this 11th day in 2023 April . . .

78 years ago today, in1945, the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany was liberated by the U.S. Army. It was the first camp to be liberated by U.S. troops at the end of World War II. Among those liberated was Elie Wiesel, who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

The Canadian/American poet Mark Strand was born on this date in 1934 Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

FYI: Having recently discovered Sophie Strand (no relation to Mark Strand, above), I've been posting occasional pieces here in support of the theme of the Watercourse Way. So, what is Ms. Strand up to? Herewith a note from St. John's College in Santa Fe, NM, in support of an invited lecture scheduled for Earth Day on April 22nd:

Tracking the vegetal gods of the Mediterranean as a case study, [Ms. Strand explores] modern advances in biology, mycology, and forest ecology to resurrect the forgotten root-system of earth-reverent mythologies suppressed by current paradigms of domination.

[D]eath is reborn and sent into the world as a gift,

So the future, with no voice of its own, nor hope

Of ever becoming more than it will be, might mourn.

– by Mark Strand in "Orpheus Alone" from The Continuous Life: Poems. Alfred A. Knopf, 1990.

[A]rtists and writers and thinkers . . .must trouble our ideas of individuality. We are walking Matryoshka dolls, nested swarms of being . . . Stories don’t belong to human beings. But human beings belong to stories. – Sophie Strand