Mostly green,
trees start to hint at
turning gold.
~ ~ ~ ~
Creeper and lichen
march to other drums.
trees start to hint at
turning gold.
~ ~ ~ ~
Creeper and lichen
march to other drums.
One Day in Late Summer
Category: tanka
A Liberty Tree for 2026
Trees have put out leaves.
With so many adorned in green,
a dead one stands out.
No, wait. Look up toward the sky.
Liberty refuses to die.
With so many adorned in green,
a dead one stands out.
No, wait. Look up toward the sky.Liberty refuses to die.
A large elm in Boston became known as the “Liberty Tree” because patriots often gathered there, from 1765 until loyalists cut it down in 1775.
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Early November
Japanese maples
sing the last high notes of red,
falling when not held.
Leaves still bright grace roads and lawns;
they danced to distant wind chimes.
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July 4, Then and Now
Started in 1776!
|Flag waved in fresh breeze.
|Holding truths self-evident,
|a nation broke free.
|~ ~ ~ ~
|Our dream fought to be real, with
|liberty and justice for all.
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Ended soon after 2025?
|Limp flag. Stifling heat.
|None but straight white wealthy males
|created equal.
|~ ~ ~ ~
|Fascist crook will make it so,
|if we all submit to him.
With some revisions, the pair of tanka that I posted for Independence Day in 2024 is still all-too appropriate now, half a year into Trump 2.0.
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Tanka for This Tree
Old branches long gone:
broken by wind; cut by saw.
New branches coming.
~ ~ ~ ~
Refuse to die? No can do.
Like this tree, refuse to quit.
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Wind After Rain
Trees came down.
Homeless lichen and
homeless moss.
Homeless lichen and
homeless moss.
Maple memories
linger on downed branch.
linger on downed branch.
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Fortunate Photons
From a distant sun,
some light finds another sun
and can shine again.
Glowing yellow like the sun,
spider waits for prey to come.
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Sharing More than Light
Slow shutter needed.
Daffodil and tulip share
early morning light.
~ ~ ~ ~
There is enough for us all,
if we take less than we want.
Light ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #319
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Above and On the Beach
~ My response to a CDHK challenge for a tan renga based on a Jane Reichhold haiku harks back to the often-quoted opening lines of a William Blake poem. ~
When He Pulls Strings
Dancer’s wooden mask:
leather hinges swing open.
Drum throbs; shaman chants.
~ ~ ~ ~
Hinges swing shut as dance ends:
hidden face; revealed spirit.
Photo © Trustees of the British Museum
~ ~ ~ ~
Khan Academy | Transformation Masks
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Layer Upon Layer
Smooth outer layer.
We see rough inner layer
when the light changes.
~ ~ ~ ~
Layers nest like Russian dolls,
when science shows us atoms.
Layers ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #283
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Two Slim Chances
While I have never visited the Galapagos Islands, I treasure a framed print of a photo taken there by Laura Zito, who captured a bright red crab against glistening wet black rock. What chance have I to see something close to home that looks much like that? Very slim. But still
Better Than No Chance at All
Helicopter seed
lands on shiny new asphalt.
No chance to grow here.
I walk away, then go back.
I move it to damp bare dirt.
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Sharing
Slow shutter needed.
Daffodil and tulip share
early morning light.
~ ~ ~ ~
There is enough for us all,
if we take less than we want.
I considered posting my photo wordlessly, with the post’s title as a hint that I have something beyond a nice image in mind. Too subtle. Compulsively explicit, I wrote a haiku. Then I expanded the haiku to a tanka.
I hesitated. The tanka’s last 2 lines might be too preachy. Then I read the Gandhi quote in a great collection of images and quotes: Our Beautiful, Broken World (curated by Mitch Teemley).
Thanks, Mitch. The time for subtlety is long gone.
Twilight Tanka
In context, the phrase «world slipping into darkness» in a recent challenge refers to serene twilight in the natural world. In the political world, the same phrase has an utterly different mood. What to do? Write a tanka and dig deeper for ways to fight the political world’s descent into darkness.
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The challenge is reblogged (in effect) below. I was jolted by the clash between the serenity of the image and the political interpretation of a phrase in the poem.
In the ebbing radiance
Of a world slipping into darkness
The light is most vivid
Capable of magiks
Unknown to daylight
© Patrick Jennings | Radiance ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #243
Radiance and Darkness
In sure and certain hope
that light returns tomorrow,
sky’s radiance fades.
But slipping into darkness
is not serene for nations.
Going Gray?
Some photos need color, some are better in grayscale (aka “black and white”), and many are good either way. Here are some examples and a tanka that touches on the symbolism of color in general. Visit the links to see more examples.
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Bare Branches
Some go to grayscale
when form is “all” that matters.
I keep azure skies.
My world will gray soon enough.
I keep color and press on.
If somebody chooses to emphasize form and texture in a photo of bare branches by going to grayscale, I am likely to disagree with (but respect) that choice. So far, I have always wanted to keep color in my own photos, often with minor adjustments in my photo editor. Here are some examples where grayscale would be goofy:
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While I have no qualms about really needing color in most of my own photos, there is more to be said about the ways various photographers have used color or grayscale. Some examples follow.
A somber poem with grayness as a metaphor has been illustrated by a photo of a mostly gray scene. But it is a color photo, and rightly so. The subtle color is a reminder that the grayness is there in the scene, not an artifact of how the image is displayed.
Of course, I admire the photographic pioneers whose images were compelling despite then-obligatory grayscale. Some classic photos are best left in grayscale anyway, and contemporary photographers may choose partial desaturation. There are even a few photos that benefit from going all the way to true black and white, where every pixel is either pitch black or stark white. Scroll down from the header image in Choices to see an example.
Oneness Beyond Color
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Carpe Diem #1378 Finally … Enlightenment
The Silk Road was a hard slog, as is the path to enlightenment. It might help a little to consider some of the unobvious ways the images in this post are alike.
Oneness Beyond Color
Glass ball and blossom:
so unlike yet so alike.
Enlightenment glows
beyond breakage or wilting;
beyond illusions of death.
Mellow Curmudgeon 