Showing posts with label River. Show all posts
Showing posts with label River. Show all posts

Sunday, June 2, 2019

A RIVER, TWO ROSES and WILD STRWBERRIES

East River at Night


Rose

and another one.


When passing the church yard
where the back garden has been entirely neglected,

I noted with joy

the return of wild strawberries I'd planted there
two decades ago.


*
THE unspoken RULE IS
Only share the positive
Therefore I won't be declaring the details of various aches and collapses of my aging body, nor the insomnia I stagger through many a long night to dawn, nor the difficulty of tolerating the regular moving in and out of the new tenant population in general, but specifically not how I was rudely awakened too early on a recent morning by voices in my entrance hall and that I discovered I have no compassion for idiots making the error of pushing through my unlocked door while trying to maneuver an oversized mattress down the stairs to their moving van in the street. I rushed to the scene, hollered "DAMN" and slammed the door to return to sleep. Why was my door unlocked? My reason was rooted in an episode of severe congestion before going to bed that felt like a possible heart attack and which had got me to thinking I might have to summon an ambulance in the middle of the night and was attempting to save them from having to break down my door. I locked the door after the incident realizing I was okay after all.  I will certainly not rag on about the horrors contained in world news, or of floods and fires across our country, nor pollution, homelessness, gun wielding desperate humans, nor cruelty in general, nor pathological fears encouraged by Governments so hungry for power, they're gearing up for war. No, none of that...I will speak only of Mornings that reveal new life
arriving in an alley between my building and the next one.
 
Photographed through the screen so as not to alarm.

I will share the wonder of Pete Hamill; his experience of this City as "the magnificent, haunted space" he continued to call home through the decades this audio book, read by the author, conveys so well. Available at Amazon and elsewhere.

or virtually offer this scalloped Potato casserole I baked, filling space with a buttery aroma, and ate with a side of Broccoli Rab actually

or these words from Mary Oliver
"Over and over in the butterfly we see the idea of transcendence. In the forest we see not the inert, but the aspiring, In water that departs forever and forever returns, we experience eternity"

or, from R. Nemo Hill:
"The soul in time, Magellan, is what bends.
I know now how a voyage never ends."

Links
R. Nemo Hill
https://www.dosmadres.com/shop/magellans-reveries-by-r-nemo-hill/
Mary Oliver
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/at-81-mary-oliver-shares-her-spiritual-journey-in-upstream-selected-essays/2016/10/12/ea2e4194-8bfc-11e6-bff0-d53f592f176e_story.html?utm_term=.3ac855595212
~*~


Tuesday, September 12, 2017

A WANING MOON

Friday September Eighth
The waning moon...
A rippling path.
Wendy contemplates...
...then shoots the moon.
Men Fishing
There were five or six and it was immediately obvious, no strangers to one another. There was music and a festive atmosphere - this one caught a beauty,  but while exhibiting, urging others to photograph, he left it hanging hooked, live, gills struggling for air, it's glittering eye still seeing. No doubt it took time to get all the photos they wanted before the actual kill. and in between...suffering, though much debate about that is still waged. I felt a strong wish to intervene, release it from the moment, but only shot this one quickly, turned away from the spectacle, thoughts drifting through my brain about all the issues involved in humans eating animal flesh, as I have over my decades of being both carnivore and herbivore......Later that night I considered it again. "Suffice to say that both the scientific and the philosophical arguments on either side of the animal-suffering issue are involved, abstruse, technical, often informed by self-interest or ideology, and in the end so totally inconclusive that as a practical matter, in the kitchen or restaurant, it all still seems to come down to individual conscience, going with (no pun) your gut."
(see the full Link please)
We didn't speak of it but went on, away from the river up 20th Street and into Stuyvesant Town passing manicured garden...
...to the fountain
where Wendy took some shots and when I went to take one of her, did a "star turn" leaving me with this interesting gestural blur backed by a lamp-light 'star'.

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

RIVER

"What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn't have any doubt - it is sure to get where it's going, and it doesn't want to go anywhere else."

-Hal Boyle-


(a family of mourning-doves feasting on seaweed and river moss)
"The species is generally monogamous, with two squabs (young) per brood. Both parents incubate and care for the young. The mourning dove forms strong pair bonds. Pairs typically reconvene in the same area the following breeding season, and sometimes may remain together throughout the winter. However, lone doves will find new partners if necessary."



Hellianthus
"Sunflowers are especially well known for their symmetry based on Fibonacci numbers and the Golden angle"
https://youtu.be/greG6_f7Y7Q



Wonderland
"How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
 And gather honey all the day
From every shining flower!"

-Lewis Caroll-






Scarlet Bee Balm
Monarda didyma
Aromatic herb in the family Lamiaceae
Native to eastern North America from Maine west to Ontario and Minnesota, and south to northern Georgia. Its odor is considered similar to that of the bergamot orange




Phlox

And I would seek the country town
Amid green meadows nestled down
If I could only find the way
Back to the Land of Yesterday!

How I would thrust the miles aside,
Rush up the quiet lane, and then,
Just where her roses laughed in pride,
Find her among the flowers again.
I'd slip in silently and wait
Until she saw me by the gate,
And then . . . read through a blur of tears
Quick pardon for the selfish years.

This time, this time, I would not wait
For that brief wire that said, Too late! --
If I could only find the way
Into the Land of Yesterday.

I wonder if her roses yet
Lift up their heads and laugh with pride,
And if her phlox and mignonette
Have heart to blossom by their side;
I wonder if the dear old lane
Still chirps with robins after rain,
And if the birds and banded bees
Still rob her early cherry-trees. . . .

I wonder, if I went there now,
How everything would seem, and how --
But no! not now; there is no way
Back to the Land of Yesterday.
-Donald Marquis-



Identity

"it's the swirling river of time that makes our identities, not the monochromatic simplicity of skin color, or the definitive lines of international borders."


-Giles Foden-

Links


Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs throug
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/river.html
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. Norman Maclean
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/river.html
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. Norman Maclean
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/river.html
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. Norman Maclean
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/river.html

Saturday, July 23, 2016

REAL SURREAL

Title References
(Two Links)

 Hudson River
Blue enhanced and surreal. Let's just say it's how I feel.



Last Blooming Roses
We're having a real heat wave.

Bus Reader
 Even she seemed surreal.

Surreal Estate
How real can you get? This elaborate, ornate, Gothic gem of a property at 281 Park Avenue South used to house social service organizations among other businesses. Now it's for sale as the flagship headquarters of some willing super entity.
(Link)
Appropriately they are advertising their availability in the unfinished lobby with this arresting display:
 Bizarre, life size latex sculptures...
 haunting the haunted house.

Political Vision Airy
Apparently Surrealism has returned with melting clocks that don't tell time, and time itself in retrograde sliding off the periodic table. The unconscious is having a fling with us, or are we only dreaming? What labyrinth is this? Is it a moon or simply another mirage
(Link to Periodic Tables)
 Wishing you all sufficient means and Peace of mind.
~*~

LINKS

Park Avenue Property

Title References

Surrealism
 +
Entertaining article from The Guardian