Category: Photography
The Ballad of the Bird and Judge Holden
The eve of Hallowe’en a bird was freed:
it wasn’t meant to be;
it had been tied to the end of a string
designed by devilry.
But up it flew o’er a bubbling brew
into the boughs of a tree.
“Where goes that bird?” Judge Holden cried
cursing all wizardry;
for its escape was not foreseen by those
of his company.
“It’s singing loud o’er field and town” said
a blackhearted mercenary.
“Then all our lies will be undone, and all
our schemes they’ll see!”
“Not all, Judge Holden,” a satyr croaked, “the bird
silenced will be,
when stirring this cauldron of discontent, to you
they’ll bow their knee.”
The bird had heard the words they said as it
flew o’erhead happily;
this people’s fate lay not in mortal hands but in
truth that would set them free.
So it louder sang, and it never feared Judge Holden
and his mercenaries.
Continue reading “The Ballad of the Bird and Judge Holden”
Autumn Revelry
images © dorahak
So I took a trip down Jack O’Lantern Lane
Where skeletons and ghosts were raising Cain
The crows they cawed
The mockingbirds squawked
And the treetops flared like a fire engine.
So I ran back home to ink an angry complaint
Against shuffling monsters that make one faint
But I tripped over boxes
Left by masquerade foxes
And I cursed like the dickens cuz a saint I ain’t.
So then I opened my eyes, took in the wide blue skies
And I laughed at the beauty that around me lies
The anthem of the trees
As they sang in the breeze
And I thanked the Lord with my heartfelt sighs.
As if by magic my anger disappeared and the doorbell rang
And I rose from my chair with a clatter and a bang
See, I had my nutty nurse costume on
A green glowing needle and a wig of blonde
I was going trick or treatin’ with my neighborhood gang.
Continue reading “Autumn Revelry”
Media Vita
Media Vita
“In the midst of life
we are in death” sang fair
Notker the Stammerer
whose spoken words
when they emerged
wingless apart hobbled:
but when he sang
Notker’s sodden eyes
gathered gold like wheat
till we fared as kings
upon the bread of angels.
In the year 912, Notker the Stammerer, a monk of the Abbey of Saint Gall, is said to have written what became the Gregorian chant below, the English translation of which is a poetic adaption from the Book of Common Prayer (1549).
Media vita in morte sumus
quem quaerimus adjutorem
nisi te, Domine,
qui pro peccatis nostris
juste irasceris?
Sancte Deus,
sancte fortis,
sancte et misericors Salvator:
amarae morti ne tradas nos.
In the midst of life we are in death
of whom may we seek for succour,
but of thee, O Lord,
who for our sins
art justly displeased?
O Lord God most holy,
O Lord most mighty,
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.
2 Samuel 14:14
We must all die;
we are like water spilled on the ground,
which cannot be gathered up again.
But God will not take away life,
and he devises means
so that the banished one will not remain an outcast.
Image for Cee's Flower of the Day (FOTD), November 15, 2021 Linda at dVerse: Quadrille#140 asks us to use some form of the word "fair" in a poem of exactly 44 words. Click Mr. Linky and join in!
Lilies of the Field
Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Luke 12:27)
There is no nonsense about them
These increments of light
Sun-warmed stalks and petals,
Reducing to ornate shabbiness, palaces and temples,
Gaudy shacks of industry, mirrors of acquisition
While these Easter-birthed seeds burst otherworldly
All-gathering the vindicating Light
The Being uncanny borne by fragile forms, mortal all,
Sometimes dowdy, bent, dreary,
Sometimes bold, speckled, flashy,
Zealous, winsome, or hard-pressed
Between cracks of broken pavements
Yet there all the same:
Seven thousands of unbowed knees
Introduced by design, awakened, sent out
As an offense to be discarded or tolerated,
Eliciting smile, laughter, scorn, booted heel,
These refugees offering refuge immortal
These exiles rushing homeward
This desire of sun:
These lilies of the field.
For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness. (Psalm 26:3)
[And the LORD said to Elijah:] “Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18)
Björn at dVerse prompts us to write using a conceit:"A conceit is defined as an extended and complex metaphor that creates that apart from creating an element of surprise. If a metaphor is used to enhance imagery the conceit is better suited to describe an intricate metaphysical or emotional subject." Click on Mr. Linky to read and join in! Cee's FOTD (Flower of the Day) November 4, 2021: Daisy Click on any image above for a slideshow. Images ©dorahak
Assemblies of Mobs
Are you a member of a mob,
Is there a crowd you’ve joined?
Do you volley a round of jeers,
A record number aimed to mock
Those it crowns with contempt
To curry your crowd’s acclaim?
When mob zombies throw you a bone,
An IG, Twitter or a Facebook like,
Oh, how you preen with pride
As prowling for that perfect target,
A victim for your mob’s consumption
You deny it’s a wicked game.
Natural bullies, mobsters we
Who crowd to assemble hate
Shaming those with whom we disagree
In social media where we congregate
To acclaim the noble popularity
Of the monsters we create.
Like cartoon lemmings we march off
To follow them over the cliff
Buying the wicked conjurings
Sold by all the best,
Warding off independent thought
That bane of every crowd.
Are you a member of a mob,
Is there a crowd you’ve joined?
Your membership will last as long
As you make their idols yours.
But when the day is done you’ll find
Alas, the mob was not your friend.
--For Sammi's 13 Days of Samhain (volume ii) Day 3: "A Wicked Conjuring" prompt for October 22, 2021 --"The Monster in the Woods" photo for Cee's PPAC: #19: Photographing Public Art Challenge (PPAC) Public art is encompasses any form of art you see in a public place, large or small, statues, murals, graffiti, gardens, parks, etc. The art should be visible from streets, sidewalks or outdoor public places.
Leaves in Light
Eden’s light long since faded
we no longer look to know or see
as we once saw but question
the light we possess, frugal,
appalled at universal decay:
but now You have come.
Contained within the palms of Your hands,
not a leaf, not a flower, not a rock,
not the universe in a grain of sand,
but nails driven into You in whom
we have our being.
You did not suffer apart from me
as a celestial leaf in glory fallen
shorn from root, tree, limb,
but You in me, now dead, buried,
risen to new life.
In this crucible of exile do not deny me
now the fire of your Spirit along darkened veins,
a reckoning, their pride of life burnt dry
into joyous rivers of light.
Romans 6:22
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Reflections on an Un-Natural Decay
For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: This week’s CFFC topic is Special Request: Wilting, dead or aging flowers and leaves.
The topic is fitting somehow. This week I finished the last pages of Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light (2020). I had dreaded what was coming, so thoroughly had Thomas Cromwell and the world of 16th-century England peopled my imagination, a testimony to Mantel’s literary genius (see Well Met, Jude: Mann & Mantel).
Shadows and Reflections in Photography
For Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: This week our topic is Shadows and reflections. Be creative if you feel like it, and fun with this challenge this week. Remember your photos need to be black and white, desaturated, sepia (brown tones) or selective color.
Red Darkness
This picture was taken behind our home. The colors all stream together into a red pool breeding a kind of wanderlust, an unhealthy variety where you feel like you’re fleeing from all the demons of hell but really just taking them all with you, pursued, driven and tormented. Into such a dark night of the soul, home is the only cure, a place where you are rescued and kept safe. I pray that all who read this will find that home in Christ Jesus, who in His faithful love I have found to be the only sure refuge from such a rabid wanderlust of the mind and spirit.
Elementary, my dear Watson, Elementary
“There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as religion,” said [Sherlock Holmes], leaning with his back against the shutters. “It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Naval Treaty
Death Rattle
It’s not unusual for a tree to give off an aura of permanence, but impermanence? This one practically stepped out in front of me asking that I register it in the codex of my own mortality as if it were a fleeting shade rather than a young oak standing in the cloudless heat of a summer day.
Dreams from a Pilgrimage 