Tag: Autumn

Still point of the turning world

In thinking about the haiku form (see last post) I have been considering Japanese calligraphy and images which have a very calligraphic look to them. I also think of various Buddhist concepts, like Eliot’s “still point of the turning world,” in the Four Quartets.

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.

Here is a Bashō (considered by many the greatest practitioner of the haiku form):

One way or another, I think the image selection above (most taken on a walk to Caesar’s Camp in north Farnham) all have a kind of calligraphic, still feeling to them. Click any image to see them all full-sized.

Petals on a wet, black bough

I continue to work on my haiku project. Finding ‘petals on wet, black boughs’ is proving difficult. Above, this week’s selection of ‘leaves on dark backgrounds.’ It is, after all, not necessary to be literal. I can call on poetic license, can I not? Click any image to see them all enlarged.

Here is Pound’s original haiku:

Time Passing

Farnham, UK

Some of you will remember a post from a week or so ago of Autumn leaves and shopping carts glistening gold and silver in the late afternoon sun. I passed the site again on a gray, wet day. The light was cool, the leaves more brown and sodden, the shopping carts fewer and more abandoned looking. Another quick shot, capturing the passage of time.

Portrait Room Reflections

UCA, Farnham

Part of a larger Family Ties exhibit in the reception hall gallery of the University, Caroline Molloy, programme director of Fine Art, Digital Art and Photography at University for the Creative Arts, was showing us around the exhibit. When we go to her contribution, The Portrait Rooms, I was distracted by the way the Autumn leaves outside were being reflected in the display case glass.