Bridge

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the shimenawa (Meoto Iwa, Mie prefecture, Japan). Meoto Iwa or the wedded rocks will be a very familiar subject to many. This is my favourite PoV for this location aesthetically and symbolically. I titled this “the shimenawa” because I wanted to share a little excerpt from Joseph Campbell. “…the ‘shimenawa,’ the august rope of straw that was stretched behind the goddess (Amaterasu) when she reappeared, symbolizes the graciousness of the miracle of the light’s return. The shimenawa is one of the most conspicuous, important, and silently eloquent, of the traditional symbols of the folk religion of Japan. Hung above the entrances of the temples, festooned along the streets at the New Year festival, it denotes the renovation of the world at the threshold of the return. If the Christian cross is the most telling symbol of the mythological passage into the abyss of death, the shimenawa is the simplest sign of the resurrection. The two represent the mystery of the boundary between the worlds -- the existent nonexistent line.": photo by Stephen Cairns, 23 June 2013

The stones rising from
........... the gray

.......................water

The dark bay, illegible

................sentence

punctuated

by pier stumps -- stubbed

matchsticks

broken piers jutting toward
....................emptiness

fishing nets

fresh snow on dark piers

converging in distance

loneliness cold winter
......................night

streaming weeds
.....................a blur

just beneath the surface

light is life

color joy

but now -- all dark

and from those loved, drifting

poles
........apart
unready to cross

....................over

a bridge between worlds

Meoto Iwa (Meoto Iwa, Mie prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 23 June 2013
 

belief (Meoto Iwa, Mie prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 23 June 2013
 

fishing nets (Imazu, Lake Biwa, with Chibuku Island floating in the background, Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 20 March 2013
 

ケンナさんありがとう (Kohoku-cho, Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 9 February 2013

broken pier, Lake Biwa (Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 9 December 2012
 

ways around (Adogawa-cho, Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 17 November 2012
 

pier stumps (Adogawa-cho, Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan) "...what was once, was and is lost,/ lost in the past, and now does not come back". -- Pablo Neruda, the closing lines of his poem Past. It's always about this time of year when my wife and I reflect on the year past. Of course, that spirals out into the quick passage of time and of how dear it is. It occurred to me that if a span of life is 80 years, then I've settled into my autumnal years: photo by Stephen Cairns, 17 November 2012
 

iteration (Adogawa-cho, Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 17 November 2012
 

posts and weeds (Chibuku Island, Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 31 March 2013
 

fourteen posts (dusk on Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 31 March 2013

two posts (Adogawa-cho, Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 9 March 2013

KI (Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan). How about a little visual word play? "KI", the seventh sound of the Japanese syllabary. Most commonly meaning "tree", "wood, or "timber," it can have many meanings. When written with this Kanji "気" also pronounced "ki," it can mean "spirit", "nature", "mood", and "atmosphere." It can be used in combination with other words to make a phrase like "kimochi" (気持ち) which means "feeling" or "sensation". Of course, "o ki ni iri" or "お気に入り" which means a personal favourite works as well: photo by Stephen Cairns, 9 March 2013
 

 snow sounds (Lake Biwa near Nagahama, Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 9 February 2013

fresh snow (Nagahama, Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 9 February 2013

snow covered piers (Nagahama, Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 9 February 2013

Chibuku Island (Imazu, Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 20 March 2013

 winter storm, Kohoku (Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan). Tremendous winter wind this day. I remember thinking more arms would be helpful as I had one hand steadying the tripod, an umbrella under my arm and my free hand wiping down the filter. Oddly, days like that make me feel alive: photo by Stephen Cairns, 9 December 2012

early morning in Burlington (Spencer Smith Park, Burlington, Ontario): photo by Stephen Cairns, 23 July 2012

 
here and after. torii, Shirahigejinjya (白鬚神社) (Takashimashi, Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 17 November 2012