Showing posts with label Light. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Light. Show all posts
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
A Final Christmas Thought
At the cusp of the end of this season of Light; a season when Jews celebrate the preservation of light, when Scandinavians dress little girls in crowns of light, when Germans adorn fir trees in candles of light, and Latin Americans join in a flurry of pyrotechnical explosions of light to dazzle the streets of Managua, San Salvador, and Guatamala City.....
Imagine the universal joy of light.
When those of us in the United States decorate our homes with millions of miles of little light bulbs to express our joy and give our children a glowing memory of trees, and bushes, and windows, and doors, and wreaths, and menorahs alight.
Imagine how much we are just a part of the whole.
And when the ancient god of Judia and Israel proclaimed through the prophet Isaiah: "The people who dwell in the darkness have now seen a great light; those who were living in a land of shadows, upon them a light has shone. Thou hast richly given them gladness, and an amply joy; in thy presence they rejoice like harvesters, as men rejoice dividing plunder."
Imagine the timelessness of the mystery of light.
Well...what else is to be said?
Thanks be to God.
Imagine the universal joy of light.
When those of us in the United States decorate our homes with millions of miles of little light bulbs to express our joy and give our children a glowing memory of trees, and bushes, and windows, and doors, and wreaths, and menorahs alight.
Imagine how much we are just a part of the whole.
And when the ancient god of Judia and Israel proclaimed through the prophet Isaiah: "The people who dwell in the darkness have now seen a great light; those who were living in a land of shadows, upon them a light has shone. Thou hast richly given them gladness, and an amply joy; in thy presence they rejoice like harvesters, as men rejoice dividing plunder."
Imagine the timelessness of the mystery of light.
Well...what else is to be said?
Thanks be to God.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Silver Lining
Been home sick for three days. Not on the edge of death sort of sick, but can't stop coughing and hocking up phlem until my head aches, my chest aches and my throat burns with the force of all the coughing...
While not well enough to go to work, or run a marathon; I find wonder and delight in odd things. This image is an early morning reflection on the ceiling of my bedroom from light passing through the wind blown leaves of the trumpeter vine outside of my room.
Be well!
While not well enough to go to work, or run a marathon; I find wonder and delight in odd things. This image is an early morning reflection on the ceiling of my bedroom from light passing through the wind blown leaves of the trumpeter vine outside of my room.
Be well!
Friday, June 29, 2007
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Sunlight through Begonias
You already know about my fetish with light and the way it effects objects and moments.
A couple of years back, I secured window boxes against the upstairs windows in the back of my home. It's the western side of the house, and in the afternoon the waning sunlight addresses the flowers in a more horizontal manner. This year I have begonias in these mini-second-story gardens, and the effect can, by my reckoning, be absolutely magical. The light illuminates the translucent layers of leaves and petals casting shadows and creating a stained-glass glow.
A veritable "poem" of sunlight and matter, that reminded me of this poem.
The Sun
Look: the sun has spread its wings
over the earth to dispel the darkness.
Like a great tree, with its roots in heaven,
and its branches reaching down to the earth.
~ Judah Al-Harizi, 1170-1235
A couple of years back, I secured window boxes against the upstairs windows in the back of my home. It's the western side of the house, and in the afternoon the waning sunlight addresses the flowers in a more horizontal manner. This year I have begonias in these mini-second-story gardens, and the effect can, by my reckoning, be absolutely magical. The light illuminates the translucent layers of leaves and petals casting shadows and creating a stained-glass glow.
A veritable "poem" of sunlight and matter, that reminded me of this poem.
The Sun
Look: the sun has spread its wings
over the earth to dispel the darkness.
Like a great tree, with its roots in heaven,
and its branches reaching down to the earth.
~ Judah Al-Harizi, 1170-1235
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Light and Shade
I. Specimen Days
140. Sundown Lights
"May 6, 5 P. M.—THIS is the hour for strange effects in light and shade—enough to make a colorist go delirious—long spokes of molten silver sent horizontally through the trees (now in their brightest tenderest green,) each leaf and branch of endless foliage a lit-up miracle, then lying all prone on the youthful-ripe, interminable grass, and giving the blades not only aggregate but individual splendor, in ways unknown to any other hour. I have particular spots where I get these effects in their perfection. One broad splash lies on the water, with many a rippling twinkle, offset by the rapidly deepening black-green murky-transparent shadows behind, and at intervals all along the banks. These, with great shafts of horizontal fire thrown among the trees and along the grass as the sun lowers, give effects more and more peculiar, more and more superb, unearthly, rich and dazzling."
~ Walt Whitman, 1819-1892
My bathroom sink would be another one of those places....
140. Sundown Lights
"May 6, 5 P. M.—THIS is the hour for strange effects in light and shade—enough to make a colorist go delirious—long spokes of molten silver sent horizontally through the trees (now in their brightest tenderest green,) each leaf and branch of endless foliage a lit-up miracle, then lying all prone on the youthful-ripe, interminable grass, and giving the blades not only aggregate but individual splendor, in ways unknown to any other hour. I have particular spots where I get these effects in their perfection. One broad splash lies on the water, with many a rippling twinkle, offset by the rapidly deepening black-green murky-transparent shadows behind, and at intervals all along the banks. These, with great shafts of horizontal fire thrown among the trees and along the grass as the sun lowers, give effects more and more peculiar, more and more superb, unearthly, rich and dazzling."
~ Walt Whitman, 1819-1892
My bathroom sink would be another one of those places....
Sunday, April 09, 2006
From My Gardens
I love what light does to flowers; especially the spring ones. The way it causes daffodils and jonquils, tulips and even irises to radiate -- not as one that reflects light like the moon, but like one that creates it like the sun.
This little clutch of daffodils brought another image to mind, as well: that of angels ascending. And from their my mind is ripe with connections. One was this snippet from a poem by the Polish poet, Anna Swir (1909-1984).
Lapsed into a silence in mid-move,
hushed in mid-breath,
astounded
to the very blood,
they listen with their bodies
to the sprouting on their shoulder blades
of the first little plume.
It is from her poem "Youngest Children of Angels" and this version was translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan. She's a wonderful poet, worth the dime and the time.
This little clutch of daffodils brought another image to mind, as well: that of angels ascending. And from their my mind is ripe with connections. One was this snippet from a poem by the Polish poet, Anna Swir (1909-1984).
Lapsed into a silence in mid-move,
hushed in mid-breath,
astounded
to the very blood,
they listen with their bodies
to the sprouting on their shoulder blades
of the first little plume.
It is from her poem "Youngest Children of Angels" and this version was translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan. She's a wonderful poet, worth the dime and the time.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Speaking of Light
Isn't the light on my deck wonderful? I really enjoy this space, and my gardens continue to amaze me. Wish you were here...sincerely.
I Love Light
Light is an amazing thing. Bright or subtle, it doesn't matter to me. The way it illumines, the way it exposes, the way it creates shadows: Light is the best.
And there are three times in the day when the light draws my attention without fail. 1) The Pre-Dusk: in the later hours of the day. This is most true in Summer and Fall in particular. These fotos are of my backyard in late September with this special light turning autumn leaves into reflected flames of glorious color. 2) Early morning light. The light shortly after dawn that turns anything exposed to the east into gilded treasures. 3) Full moon reflected light. Have you ever run naked across a grassy field, dancing with arms outstreatched under the silvery glow of our moon on a July evening? I have. It's really a wonderful thing to do, but only if you are a true lover of light.
And there are three times in the day when the light draws my attention without fail. 1) The Pre-Dusk: in the later hours of the day. This is most true in Summer and Fall in particular. These fotos are of my backyard in late September with this special light turning autumn leaves into reflected flames of glorious color. 2) Early morning light. The light shortly after dawn that turns anything exposed to the east into gilded treasures. 3) Full moon reflected light. Have you ever run naked across a grassy field, dancing with arms outstreatched under the silvery glow of our moon on a July evening? I have. It's really a wonderful thing to do, but only if you are a true lover of light.
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