1.
Black rhone pipes on a wall,
mouth open to grey skies –
hush.
2.
Solitary raindrops
fixated on small panes –
time out.
3.
Beware of illusions,
colours slide off rainbows –
splash!
September 2010
1.
Black rhone pipes on a wall,
mouth open to grey skies –
hush.
2.
Solitary raindrops
fixated on small panes –
time out.
3.
Beware of illusions,
colours slide off rainbows –
splash!
September 2010
sun king
roi soleil
and when we look at close level, I see rusty iris in meadows...
saturday dusk treasures
I love my island at sunset.
Fire reverberates on each sandgrain; sandstones find pleasure on washed kelp… Feathers and stones always write stories in that earth tongue one does not always understand.
As feet find their roots in wet sand, I become one with Arcania.
There, on my way to daily walk by the shore, I kept in mind the text I read earlier that day, which I received from our curach skipper Macdougall. To my humble nomadic heart, it resonated like a message in a bottle. It speaks of continental inscriptions: geographaphs, chronographs, phonographs and paragraphs. It notably took me back to Gulliver, Friday and Robinson Crusoe.
Hernan Diaz
This bridge of sand allows such trek. From mainland to island – just as Kenneth White runs away from motorways of western civilisations! My sandbrige provides the shoormal – this critical edge as Diaz calls it; rite of passage to my topical paradise, where north Atlantic protects its natural causeway at high tides, like some self-defence mechanism… Others can look from the distance or wander through without knowing…
It’s big enough to sustain all kinds of assaults, pulls of the moon and man-made signatures. The water acts as a rubber and deletes traces from one’s feet.
Earlier this year, I painted it with pixels. This blog entry was entitled Snapshots from Arcania …A summer before that, I painted it with words.
Hairst, Harvest, Fall… festival
This is the second festival of the season of harvest – at the beginning of the harvest, at Lammas (1 August), winter retreated to its underworld, now at the Autumn Equinox, it comes back to earth. Harvest Home marks a time of rest after hard work, and a ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the world.
This is the time to look back on the past year – what has been achieved and learnt, and to plan for the future.
Not a time to mourn the decrepitude of summer… But time to celebrate balance within our boreal world.
Filed under 60N, Arcania, celebration, earth, geopoetics, home, images, verse
adventure day
I love my archipelago.
There are just enough islands to hop onto and embrace its myriad of facets either on your own or with friends…
An end of summer trip to Shetland’s most northerly isles of Yell and Unst acts as detox from daily grinding of our lives. We picked up friends by the roadside and went to explore a few tracks, ferry terminals and carparks, as Alistair was not afraid of taking his 53-seater machine down to the edge of the water.
Yell is a glorious in September.
This 17 mile long island is Shetland’s second largest lump of peat…
And yet treasures began at Toft on the mainland, where an otter greeted that Saturday morning along boulders.
Ulsta, West Sandwick, Mid-Yell, Bayanne House right by the burn (stream)… Like magic names right to Gutcher, where we pit-stopped at The Wind Dog (Café) before crossing to magic Unst.
Morning showers did not damper spirits. I saw your eyes on the island. Yell, Shetland, UK
The café feels like a saloon, the final outpost located at the edge of some blended taste of salty and peaty frontier. There we sat down and shared a homebake and a cup. Andy made us feel just at home.
Amidst rivets and fishing nets, my nomadic heart feels at home. I’ve never rowed on open sea and yet I feel each humly baand…
That connection so nomadic when I once asked a boat builder from Carbeth what it feels like to float inside a coracle…
http://humblyband.wordpress.com/
I said I wanted to write poetry and graffiti the calico…
She said, “let’s ride the Atlantic.”
Ruth once built one with her own hands… Took it to water for a ride and her spirit now runs further, as she began to fabricate a bigger craft.
Inside her shed grows a currach.
You see, your spirit raves around my archipelago, as I dream of expedition SW from Auld Rock and Roost, where tidal currents never rest… Where North Atlantic meets North Sea. sumburgh light Last week alone, I watched that episode of Coast, and wandered around West Ireland, where men rowed currachs through wild waves… Around icebergs, north to Faroe and beyond. Mind you, their craft was designed to tame the might of our north Atlantic! from Galway to Baltimore
That episode nourished my dream, as we returned to the mainland.
14 September 2010
Today’s inspiration emerged from the classroom – this is one example of Geopoetics in action 🙂
Filed under earth, geopoetics, haiku, spirit
will power
Last Thursday was a hellery.
Doom, iron cast inside my head, as I sat inside a cold room filled with benches, hollow voices, fears and remorse.
When one feels collapse of the world, all slips away through tiles and stones… La comedia del arte dressed in black.
Thank goodness, friends surrounded me.
I shall remember it for a while – wet flagstones recorded our every step until drizzle turned into fog.
and so is hairst
September filled with silver heads, even iris leaves turn to rust, as chlorophyll becomes weaker… Everything changes around us – precocious signs of early gale, the haste with which birds fly away; even ravens seem much darker. Our every sound, voe and wick become a paddock filled with horses’ manes. Soon we shall vanish in blackness.
this precious little book of zen
Martin’s happy feet at Da Gadderie yesterday afternoon, Saturday 4 September, as the Four Seasons in Shetland exhibition opened officially to the public in Lerwick.The Shetland Museum & Archives lit on all lights onto some 74 framed works as well as some 328 digital images projected on a screen.
We, the gang of photographers & visual artists, gathered and met friendly faces who came to discover what the Islesburgh Photographic Club could offer. The result is an eclectic collection of images taking your eyes and hearts through the four seasons around the nordic archipelago – voar, simmer, hairst and winter, as captured through some 20 different viewfinders… There is something for everyone.
The exhibition is on till 10 October and the Islesburgh Photographic Club remains open to talented world watchers 🙂
Filed under 60N, celebration, exhibition, geopoetics, home, images, island, lerwick, museum, north, project, shetland, wordplay
Let’s look at it at sand level.
Our every move begins on shore.
When Shetland Arts’ Karen Emslie began to share ideas about a community project celebrating Shetland’s Architecture & Place, a few ideas ignited my creative heart.
Placemaking,
Past, present, future,
Passionate about rocks and stones,
I owe my life to a sextant.
Today we walk that bridge of sand –
we wade in haste tangled in lace in such earthly
rubberband grace,
we long to reach that green
island.
I look for stars drowned in ocean.
World traveller
W by NW,
let’s taste each mile,
nautical dream, where we slip away from pale sun;
you write your name on a storm beach
with a pebble from my homeland –
from tide to tide,
where shadows stand
rollers won’t breach,
what does salt mean away
from lips?
I owe our love to a
sextant.
Nat, northern garden,
30 December 07
Tonight, my world belongs to dusk.
…Tomorrow, I shall add my stone to this great community’s adventure by sharing a few lines of poetry at lunchtime in Room 12 during our annual local book festival. And then, leg it to one of Shetland’s most exciting buildings erected at Hay’s Dock to celebrate the place through another collaborative project entitled Four Seasons in Shetland.
Four Seasons in Shetland exhibition 2010
My love for the Auld Rock grew out of its mystic powers – sheer ruggedness, raw, dynamic power of place 🙂
Chronicles from Arcania
Thoughts on life, writing, creativity and magic
About fantastical places and other stuff
Wherever I lay my pen, that's my home
Discover the world of birds at BirdNation!
Extinction of birds
Poetry & Prose inspired by people and places in the Western Isles of Scotland
Stories.... with a touch of India....
celebrating creativity in Shetland
Studio updates for Scottish Artist Douglas Robertson
Hay Writers' Circle ~ Established 1979 Based in Hay-on-Wye, Welsh Borders.
Chronicles from Arcania
Chronicles from Arcania
Favour the hand which pens the verses - within it's span are universes!
the texture of my life
Life through the eyes of a female with Aspergers