Posted in Uncategorized, tagged belonging, cold, crows, moon, nature, place, Poetry, Winter morning on December 31, 2012| 9 Comments »
MY PLACE
Skilled in nothing
Except a drift of words
Trawled from the bleak waves
Of day and night –
Remorseless time
Measuring failed silences.
A scouring dawn wind
Polishes the cold moon’s disc.
A clan of crows, purposeful,
Flies westwards.
If I knew it,
This
Would be my place,
Rooted and sustained,
Full of small wonders,
Upheld
By slow breath.
—–
Last post of 2012. May everyone have a great 2013!
—–
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beginnings, black and white, December, hiranyagarbha, light, nature, photographs, Poetry, polarity, return, solsice, Winter, winter solstice on December 23, 2012| 8 Comments »
WINTER SOLSTICE
Shortest of days
Exquisite punctuation.
The golden egg
Hatching new time.
Birth-waters reflect still,
Cold blue skies.
Mist in the mountains,
Mist in the valleys.
Those that can,
Continue.
All others expire,
Release
Returning from the edges
To the centre.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged autumn equinox, digital artworks, nature, spring equinox, Winter, winter solstice on December 20, 2012| 6 Comments »
It is now the few days of Winter Solstice, where the sluggish, low sun of the Northern hemisphere, appears to rise and set at the same place on the horizon. I thought it would be a good opportunity to have a virtual exhibition of a set of eight images that were created to express the dynamics of each turning point.
The style of these digital artworks is constrained by their component parts, which are largely symbols that I have created to represent (and transmit to the viewer), the dynamic qualities of different species of tree. For each festival a selection of tree energies was intuited, (alongside a few flower, gemstone and colour energies). these were combined into a mandala form.
The first image is “Light of Winter Solstice”:
The next festival occurs around the 2nd of February and is known in this part of the world as Imbolc. Here then, is “Light of Imbolc”:
This is followed around 20th March by the Spring Equinox; “Light of Spring Equinox”:
The 1st of May (or more accurately, May Eve), is Beltane. Here is “Light of Beltane”:
Around the 21st June it is the Summer Solstice. “Light of Summer Solstice”:
Around harvest-time is Lammas (2nd August). “Light of Lammas:
The Autumn Equinox arrives around 23rd September. “Light of Autumn Equinox”:
At last the year swing round to its starting and ending point, Samhain, (All Hallow’s Eve, Hallowe’en) at the 31st October. “Light of Samhain”:
So I hope you enjoyed the show.
(Just by-the-by, if anyone wants a close look or feels a yearning to possess one or more of these prints, they are available on my etsy shop : http://www.etsy.com/shop/TreeSeer )
Happy Winter Solstice to All!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged abiding, cats, darkness, fireside, galactic centre, gazing, nature, night, Poetry, silence on December 13, 2012| 2 Comments »
Night Watch
We shall learn to suffer the long dark,
Learn to melt with the short darkness.
As clouds cover the stars,
As the fire settles back
And the cats, relaxed, alert
Become still
( now it is their world).
The hum of voices, insistent, distracting, withdraws,
An undertow sucked into silence
(The spaces between things).
Roaming large and small:
The solid fears and frights,
Noises with eyes,
Snarl of unknowingness.
(Keep still.)
It is the edges that melt away
The words no longer mine.
The certainties belong to naive daylight
Not to this red tongue of dark beauty
Lapping synapses with galactic spin.
Enough to be breathing in and out
Enough to be watchful as sleepers sleep
Enough to shift weight slightly as the heavens wheel
Enough to know little, if nothing at all,
To rest upon the pulse and flow of veins
The warmth of cell and muscle
The opium castles of consciousness
(emperor’s clothes on a ghost of habit).
Keep dark the hours of darkness
Keep silence in the silent wanderings
The silent wings, the silent edges,
As silence is the only way,
The one sure way,
To find what becomes the centre.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cold, contraction, dawn, December, moon, nature, Poetry, season, Winter, withdrawal on December 12, 2012| 3 Comments »
Withering
Back to the bone.
Then, too,
The marrow
Drawing in.
Cease, surcease,
Silence.
Thread of life
Pulled tight,
Stretched taught.
Knotted, (dark knot),
To the past
Hoping to continue
Through this cold.
Even water, though,
Has turned
To rock.
Only one movement :
Slow,
Pendulum moon
Slides golden,
Hazy
Across
This winter dawn.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged change, cold, crows, leave fall, nature, November, ravens, senses, time, weather, Winter on November 18, 2012| 3 Comments »
Rook-haunted woods.
Still skies
Crow-scattered.
Raven time,
Starling time,
Fog-drenched, silent.
A million leaves conjure
A beautiful demise,
Then fall into mud,
Crushed and grateful
For sleep:
Escaping from the growing cold,
This pinching of the candle of light,
The slip of degrees.
Skeleton time,
Unfleshed, sparse.
Silhouettes and shadows
Lost in dream:
Sky-rooted,
The taste of loam
And marl.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Autumn, Breadalbane, clouds, Cuillins, dawn, dawn sky, glen garry, hills, Isle of Skye, landscape, lochs, mist, nature, photography, Poetry, portree skye, relections, Scotland, sky, Sleat, sleat isle of skye, TheTrossachs, travel, trees, Trotternish, valleys, water, waves of light on November 13, 2012| 9 Comments »
We recently travelled to the Isle of Skye and the Western Highlands of Scotland. October in Scotland is glorious and the weather was good – not too overcast, not too sunny – so that we were able to see the land in many of its moods and atmospheres. I have selected a few images around the subject of water. I hope you enjoy the visual essay.
Taken from a cafe window in Portree, Skye, early morning looking east.
Fron Ord, Sleat, Isle of Skye, looking across Loch Eishort towards the Black Cuillins.
Clouds reflecting in the still waters of a loch an near Kilt Rock, Trotternish, Skye.
Looking across the sea to Harris from Duntulm, Trotternish, Skye.
Ripples on Loch Bay, Waternish, Skye.
Dawn sky over Kyleakin, Skye. The view from our bedroom window.
Sunrise over Kyleakin, Skye. Waves of light.
Early morning mists lift into the sky over Glen Garry.
Mists, shadows, trees, Glen Garry.
Still waters, slow moving mists. Loch Lochy.
Sunlight enters the woods. Mist rises from the waters. Loch Lochy.
Water-worn pools, Falls of Killin.
Waterside willows, Loch Venachar.
The sky below. Loch Venachar.
The Waters of the World. Loch Venachar.
——
This world
is the Otherworld:
Silver and gold
in turns.
The road flies
to the horizons
where our eyes linger,
longing
for something
right
in front
of
us.
———
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged All Hallow's Eve, changing the clocks, dark days, darkness, end of British Summer Time, hallowe'en, hunger, light, maples, nature, photography, Poetry, return of GMT, samhain, Scotland, shadow of death, Skye, sundering, the dead, the influence of bards, thin rain, veil between worlds, wan light, Winter on October 29, 2012| 2 Comments »
afternoon skies: maples,wind and Beinn na Caillich, Skye
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged emptiness, Haiku, moon, nature, night, Poetry, seasons, sequence, solitude, travel, Winter on September 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »
*
Every other noise
In the storm:
The latecomers.
*
Sounding deep my soul:
The wind that moves the dark pine.
How far seems that home!
*
Only me
And the full moon
In this empty boarding house.
*
Nothing remained to be said.
The wind
High in the darkness.
*
The empty clouds
Fill with light.
Slowly, the moon.
*
Dead of night.
In the empty yard
The dripping standpipe
Is silenced.
*
This sleeping world:
River singing to itself
Under the stars.
*
Halo of the moon
Shifts like a dreaming cat.
The dawn wind.
——
This is a selection of haiku from various times, put together with a similarity of mood or feel. To add to it a very recent little piece:
Little cat
Can’t settle:
Moonlight
Rippling through the windows.
—–
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged ambient, green, japan, media, music, nature, photographs, shrine, spirits, trance states, trees on September 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »
This is the first time I’ve put in a link to one of my music projects. This one was specifically for some upcoming teaching sessions in Tokyo. They are not finished pieces, more like sketches, but if you give them a listen I hope you like something about them. Musical senryu perhaps…..
https://wodewose.bandcamp.com/album/21-japanese-trees
I spent a while looking through old photos from previous trips to Japan. Here are some of the images:
Jindai is not far from where we stay on the edge of Tokyo. We love the place full of beautiful vistas, shrines, temples and, shops and restaurants…
simonhlilly 