the erratic
For Those Who Wander and the Wonders Among Us
Artwork by Ariel March Williams
THE ERRATIC
This singular boulder, on its rocky bed,
is clearly out of place.
It is angular, light grey in color,
and looks like nothing else on the shore.
It’s an erratic.
It had been carried by and delivered from a glacier nearly twelve thousand years ago
at the end of the last ice age.
This glacier amassed its body in the far north
where it thrived and expanded over the land
as it traveled southward for many thousands of years.
At one point during its travels, it was abruptly halted in its forward movement.
It was in the last century of its life,
and it had become solidly frozen onto bedrock,
locking its footing onto the ground.
Fingers of ice reached into the cracks and fissure
of the earth’s crust, grasping it tight.
A solid mass of ice, half a mile deep, was
anchored fast to the land.
But a glacier must move on, for it still grows.
Many forces began to multiply within the ice
as the glacier grew inpatient to move again.
Immense pressures of push and pull
gathered inside the glacier.
And the land beneath moaned with the stress.
Then, with sudden fury,
the bedrock snapped.
A deep booming shudder came from under.
Cracks shot across its flanks,
and a cube of granite the size of a truck
separated itself from the mass of rock.
As the glacier broke free from its hold
and slew forward,
it rolled over the granite cube,
pulling it in.
Year passed year,
The granite cube and glacial till
traveled on,
rafting aboard the ice.
About it, great swaths of land were clothed
in ice.
Nonetheless,
the climate is erratic, as we know,
and the earth responded.
The age of ice gave over to a
glacial interlude.
Warm zephyrs now struck the wall of ice,
and it, with all its power and force,
began to disappear.
Ice became water.
The terminal moraine,
the very forward edge of the glacier,
centered itself on the rocks of a new shore.
The granite cube was set down among strangers,
and it rested rather awkwardly
on its new bed.
An unknown object.
An outlier on the seaweed.
A wanderer had arrived.
A true erratic.
The word erratic comes from the Latin - to wander.
It also means to make a mistake - to err.
The English language treats the word ‘erratic’ harshly, and for those who find themselves as being erratic, it’s a tough go:
‘You have strayed from the correct path.’
‘You have been in error.’
‘You have been aimless, inconsistent, unpredictable, shifting,
capricious, odd, eccentric, unusual, inconstant, impulsive.’
‘You have been erratic.’
The words of definition imply that the erratics are not the best company.
They are not like the rest of us.
For we, the solid people of the land, are normal, consistent, we are regular, steady, and certain about what we do.
We are sure, and reliable.
We travel the straight-and-narrow.
We follow the ideals of our society. We are the normal folks of the land.
Artwork by Christopher Williams, Origins of Form, Pg. 69
In the stories to follow, we will meet many erratics wandering through the paragraphs and pages. These tales are built to testify that it is the erratics of a society that are its light and energy. Like the great cube of granite resting on the shore, the erratics among us are usually easily spotted because they are made of different material. But when one encounters an erratic, one will find that the erratics of our society, because they are different, will seldom melt into the background.
Yet, it is only fair to say that it is the ‘normal’ people of our society that are the ones who make that society work. The straight-and-narrow are there to keep life sane and functioning. No order would exist without them. But it is the erratics of this world that give it that spark. They are a light in the dark of monotony and regularity.
We need the reliable and we need the steady, but we also need a sprinkling of erratic to have movement and wonderment in life.
There will follow, in these postings of prose and narrative poetry, many short stories, long poems, and some resting in between. They will contain an erratic or will be brushing against one. Most will be found wandering in and out of the text, in an erratic sort of way. Hopefully they will arrive on time, but one can never be too sure.
All the stories are the work of the author. Technical assistance, website design, and creative touches are from the hand of Jessica Swan. The Erratic drawing, or maybe should I say, the drawing of The Erratic and the first two story illustrations are by Ariel March Williams. Hopefully we will see more from her.
Thanks for your interest. I hope we don’t disappoint.
Christopher Williams
