Dri-Ki
is a term loggers coined to refer to the scraps they left behind after
harvesting - short for dry kindling.
Over
the years, these weathered scraps have come to resemble driftwood. Some
pieces sit on shores of lakes where logging operations happened and some
pieces sank into lakes and continue to surface. These days, Dri-Ki is collected
and sold on Route #1 or Route #27 as souvenirs used for home and landscaping
decoration. Some is burnt for campfires. They are disappearing pieces
of our past, as they are removed from the shores and lakes where they
fell or surfaced.
Enter
a mystical world of nostalgic memories - a Land that has surely twisted
hearts and tested strengths since the Ice Age. A land inhabited by Gods
and too rugged for casual entrance. It took logging roads, strong men
and the logging industry to bring non-natives to touch that Spirit. The
Dri-Ki in these photographs have Power. The Spirit of the Land, though
cut over and at times seeming desolate, endures. The Tribe of the Dri-Ki
speak beyond temporal life on earth. They show us strength through endurance by example.
Logging
companies own two-thirds of Maine. Logging pioneered this look. Regardless
of how we use our earth, regardless of how we see our environment, we
find what we need from the Creator. All is not lost if it evokes our dreaming.
I have spent much time in these haunts in daydreaming visits.
I
have taken these photos soundly in the belief that the beauty and power
of nature is not lost through seeming devastation. It is beautiful.
|