Photo journal...or whatever...: 2009

December 15, 2009

Bayshore, Safety Harbor

I took this photo yesterday at meet-up of about 20 local area photographers. We did some shooting and then went to dinner at the Safety Harbor Grill. Everyone is so friendly and fun and full of advice about how I can acquire my first SLR...I'm getting excited!

December 6, 2009

Hello journal--I've missed you.

Between an early snow storm and making preparation to leave Lost River for several months, I've been separated from my camera--except for this moment when I looked out the window and saw the bird that poet Mary Oliver say "fires up the landscape in winter." She sees the red bird as a sign of hope after a long period of grief; this interpretation speaks to me.

Red Bird Explains Himself

“Yes, I was the brilliance floating over the snow
and I was the song in the summer leaves, but this was
only the first trick
I had hold of among my other mythologies,
for I also knew obedience: bring sticks to the nest,
food to the young, kisses to my bride.

But don’t stop there, stay with me: listen.

If I was the song that entered your heart
then I was the music of your heart, that you wanted and needed,
and thus wilderness bloomed that, with all its
followers: gardeners, lovers, people who weep
for the death of rivers.

And this was my true task, to be the
music of the body. Do you understand? for truly the body needs
a song, a spirit, a soul. And no less, to make this work,
the soul has need of a body,
and I am both of the earth and I am of the inexplicable
beauty of heaven
where I fly so easily, so welcome, yes,
and this is why I have been sent, to teach this to your heart.”

~ Mary Oliver ~

(Red Bird)