Friday, 1 October 2010

"Seeing the way through..."


.

Connecticut Town on the Sea (40)

Connecticut town on the sea. Stonington, Connecticut
: photo by Jack Delano, November 1940




Seeing the way through
in channel,

waning whiteness of moon
just beyond the border of the picture

spatial without its being it,
so many dimensions

with something of Japan about them,
sense of relief once you reach

a pass in the mountains,
silver of low sun reflected

in a grain of sand
in the mind's hand.




photo

Main street, Creede, Colorado: photo by Andreas Feininger, December 1942


by Stephen, Billy, Aditya, Elmo & TC

Photos from Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress

3 comments:

  1. Tom,

    Many thanks for this (!), some resonance with first day of new month ---


    10.1

    light coming into fog above still black
    ridge, song sparrow calling from branch
    in foreground, wave sounding in channel

    glimpse of what is gone, has
    disappeared in a manner

    of seeing, is one thing only,
    that looking real again

    grey-white of fog reflected in channel,
    wingspan of gull flapping toward ridge

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  2. Seeing and reading this today was initially overwhelming and, for a while, took away my power of speech. The way the dark blue light and the rocks at the seashore and in the mountains are brought together in both pictures and the way the traded words weave together is really extra-worldly. Spending time with it reminded me of going over Jane's science schoolwork the other night and revisiting the Periodic Table, elements, compounds and mixtures, i.e., visible and invisible things our world is made of. The title of the Delano photograph is charming. Stonington is by the sea, of course, but I've never heard it referred to that way. The Feininger shot of Creede is almost beyond belief.

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  3. Stephen and Curtis,

    Thanks as always for helping me to see the post(s) (and the world) in new ways...


    creed


    light coming into fog above still black
    ridge, credence given a thing imagined,

    glimpse of what is gone, has
    disappeared in a manner

    of seeing, is one thing only,
    that looking real again

    the dark blue light and the rocks
    the seashore and the mountains

    the Periodic Table, elements,
    compounds and mixtures,

    visible and invisible things
    almost beyond belief

    ReplyDelete