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Thursday 18 February 2010

Ocean (Lucy in the Sky)


.




Window to what nobody knows

opening on byways

to what is beyond

knowing,

distance

not to be measured,

pure

arrow through

time

into the infinite

division

of indigo from blue,

synonym

for the immensity

of dreaming,

perpetual

target,

challenge

to geography,

Muse

without age,

beckoning

mirage,

optical

illusion,

history

without beginning,

companion

to those who sail

forever

toward no

destination,

seal

of peace

upon the restless

eye that's seen

too much,

temptation

to the open

eye

that would wish

to see.







Text: Beyond the Horizon, by Lucy in the Sky (trans. TC), from Locos por naufragar, 2010

Photos: Lucy in the Sky, from Locos por naufragar, 2010

14 comments:

TC said...

This post is an homage to my favourite poetic blogger, Lucy in the Sky.

Photos and original Spanish text are taken, with gratitude, from Locos por naufragar.

Those familiar with TC/BTP will know Lucy's wonderful work with images and words from earlier posts here.

The following posts have presented Lucy's photographs:

A Fairy Tale

After the Deluge

Here

"Psyche's clear lake..."

Tunnel

And this post translates one of Lucy's poetic texts:

Frog Prince and Ringdove (The Eve of St. Agnes)

Muchísimas gracias, Lucy!

Anonymous said...

Thank YOU, my dear Tom. You have embellished the text with your masterly pen and given warmth to my heart with such a flattering and fascinating surprise. Coming from a tremendously talented and sensitive poet like you, this gift is certainly the best way to start my day =)

I am infinitely grateful.

¡Muchos besos!

TC said...

Lucy,

To make you happy makes us happy. (This made our day.)

For others who would wish to be bathed in the magnificence of Lucy's vision, click on the top image.

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Thanks for this Tom, and Lucy (!), out here in the fog one can hear but not see it (blue of ocean & sky), but it's out there, and will be here ---

2.18

first grey light in fog against invisible
ridge, motion of shadowed black branches
in foreground, sound of wave in channel

originally closing, meaning
the exact opposite of

white, play of grey against,
same things appearing

silver of sunlight reflected in channel,
white cloud in pale blue sky on horizon

TC said...

Steve,

Thanks. Grey and nebulous here too. But lightening a bit now. Birds waking up, the fog breaking up. I've been waiting up for you.

Today our parallel universes appear to be the same universe we share with Lucy -- way out there, over here, and down there at the bottom of the world:

pale blue sky on horizon...

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Tom, how great. Where IS Lucy? I was totally struck first by the photos (of course!), then the poem (which I thought was yours, but when I read your note saw was a translation of hers (and now see where SHE is, way "down there." So we're (somehow) linked by the sky and the water (and the words). What beautiful photos on her site! And those translations from Shakespeare, "the master"!

TC said...

Thanks Steve, I'm glad you have now found your way to Lucy's site.

As you will have seen she lives on the shores of a deep cold glacial lake in Patagonia. The photos which she has lent me earlier come mostly from that remarkable location.

But it's currently her summer vacation so she was able to have a holiday by the warmer waters of the Pacific in Chile, and that's where the photos on this post were taken.

I hope everyone will enjoy the many pleasures of her site. As you will have seen, she titles all her posts in English, of which she probably has better command than you or me.

(But of course the original of the poem I've translated here was written in Spanish, that language which I find to be so much more essentially poetic than English.)

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Thanks Tom, ah, Lucy in the Sky in Patagonia -- I want to look further and closer. . . . only grey skies here, whither went that blue?

Anonymous said...

It is true, Tom and Steve, in "our parallel universes" we share the same sky =)

I am so glad our poetic souls can converge in this space and share this process in which we transform the raw materials nature provides us with (sights, sounds, smells, textures and tastes) into verse. THANK YOU BOTH =)

TC said...

Steve and Lucy,

Have been waiting for years (well, more than one) for the guests to finally break the ice and begin talking to one another at this party. And how sweet it is to hear, now.

Two of my favourite voices, in harmonic convergence.

Nothin' but blue skies from now on...

(Even when it's raining.)

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Lucy, Thanks so much for your comment -- those blues of your water and sky are so striking (especially now when the clouds above the ridge are getting darker, another front moving in). You might enjoy looking at the poems I'm "posting" on "my blog" (and now it seems leaving here in "comments" to Tom, so maybe you've seen some) -- they make much of water and sky!

And thanks Tom for welcoming us all to this great party!

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Tom, thanks for these links to poems w/ Lucy's beautiful photos (amazing!).']]]]]]]]]]]]]

Elmo St. Rose said...

diamonds are a girl's best friend
the lucy in the sky with diamonds
type of diamonds
the lover in the sky
that can sparkle
for the earthbound

TC said...

This Lucy in the Sky does indeed sparkle for us, the earthbound ones.

Then again, this Lucy in the Sky is also definitely an Earth Girl. And contrary to the movie title, Earth Girls aren't always all that easy.

Indeed it is perhaps her wonderfully and distinctively self-contained and independent poetic spirit that is the thing I like best about this Lucy in the Sky.