Respite

"Night, Seaport by Moonlight"         Joseph Venet




"This Hermit good lives in that wood
Which slopes down to the sea.
How loudly his sweet voice he rears!
He loves to talk with marineres
That come from a far countree.

He kneels at morn, and noon, and eve--
He hath a cushion plump:
It is the moss that wholly hides
The rotted old oak-stump. "


From  "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by
Samuel Taylor Coleridge


Painted about 1771, this oil resides in the Louvre in Paris and looks a bit worn here in this depiction.  I wonder if the artist was using lantern-light while painting and how that affected his selection and laydown of color.
  After sometimes months at sea, sailors must have really appreciated stomping around on solid ground, building a fire and talking with the pretty ladies of the port.  I saw somewhere while researching this painting that it is the port of Palermo shown here.  Makes me wonder if the white building shown on the hill still exists and if one  could get away with building a fire near the shoreline in these times.

bringing IT home

 It cannot be ignored, has to be said that this is done in my name.  Some enemy are cowards, dressing as women and old men, drawing fire to the homes and gathering places.  How to fight that?
How does this fellow go on?

So I present bent trees, mosques and buildings, poems of mountain retreat and watery solace, rivers flowing, ducks and pigeons in their lives and other' lives long gone, flowers and beauty.  Attempts at cleverly relating visual image with written image (a lost friend used to tell me that all of my photographic images did not present many people--so true as I look back) are presented as attempts at relating to the world.

But some of the world creeps in late at night, around the edges, hanging onto thought and precluding sleep.  How to handle this?



I wondered how Rumi (16th century Persian Sufi Poet) would see it:

At the twilight, a moon appeared in the sky;
Then it landed on earth to look at me.
Like a hawk stealing a bird at the time of prey;
That moon stole me and rushed back into the sky.
I looked at myself, I did not see me anymore;
For in that moon, my body turned as fine as soul.
The nine spheres disappeared in that moon;
The ship of my existence drowned in that sea.

Divan, 649:1-3,5

I am not sure what more I can say. . .            WHY?

Solace

A place in time

a space formed man-made claypit lake 
 we walk to she and me

as the heat grows and small breezes help anticipate cool relief

a nice shade to sit and lay out some orange and cheese chunks.

Strip down for a swim . . .  careful of the kinda muddy edge . . .  best just to dive in.
water is deep and clear, and cool , and floating watching up to see blue and puffy floaters.
why arent clouds heavier than the air and come down nearer for closer  inspection?

smooth silk flowing fluid  by as we thread together and then apart.  really nothing to push against
but one with all as time is on hold and eternity passes with a heartbeat and a breath

Faith

 

Church of Transfiguration at Kizhi, Karelia region (near St Petersburg, Russia) 1714

There'll be noone in the house
Save for twilight. All alone,
Winter's day seen in the space that's
Made by curtains left undrawn.

Only flash-past of the wet white
Snowflake clusters, glimpsed and gone.
Only roofs and snows, and save for
Roofs and snow -- no one at home.

Once more, frost will trace its patterns,
I'll be haunted once again
By my last-year's melancholy,
By that other wintertime.

Once more I'll be troubled by an
Old, unexpiated shame,
And the icy firewood femine
Will press on the window-pane.

But the quiver of intrusion
Through those curtain folds will run
Measuring silence with your footsteps,
Like the future, in you'll come.

You'll appear there in the doorway
Wearing something white and plain,
Something in the very stuff from
Which the snowflakes too are sewn.

Poem by Leonid Pasternak 1890-1957                                           

   

This church is at Izma, Arkhangel Region of  Northeastern Russia built in 1679.  It is on 65°  Northern Latitude; about the same as Fairbanks Alaska or Great Bear Lake in Northern Canada.

Interior of Kondopanga, Karella Region, Church of the Assumption 1774 --  This church may still be in use.   

These Photos and others  were taken by Richard Davies as he roamed the north country of Russia recently.

The churches were built during the reign of Peter the Great who ruled from age 10 in 1682 43 years until 1725.  Seems he was responsible for many improvements in Russia in attempts to modernize; and it is said that he studied incognito in Europe for a few years around the turn of the century attempting to gain knowledge of other cultures' methods and  progress.

I wonder as as to those attending these churches.  They probably led a harsh life as compared to what we enjoy, and badly needed the solace of a warm place to gather and be with others during the long winters ; belief may have been secondary, but necessary.  But just as those raised in poverty and not really realizing it until later life when they could look back and compare,  I suspect that the members of the church considered themselves lucky with a decent growing season, their good health, and their ability to overcome adversity and produce those who would go on to the next section of years of faith and survival.

Lends a new aspect  to me of the term "Godless Communists" ; those I was told we were fighting in Vietnam and Korea to keep our fair and worthy country free.

  But then, any generalization for war seems to be a good generalization for war in a pinch.