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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:

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

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

Anonymous said...

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.

TC said...

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