Photo 101 Assignment Fifteen: Landscape. This photo was taken this morning from Rocky Butte looking NE at the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon USA. Volcanic Mt. Saint Helens can be seen in the background. The early morning haze has not yet lifted.
Rest in peace, they said. I imagined solitude. No soul in sight? Ha!
Photo 101 Assignment Five: Solitude
My current home is
ninety-five miles upriver from
the coast where I grew up.
Had I allowed myself to merely drift,
I would now be thirty-two leagues out to sea,
floundering at the mercy and
whims of capricious waves.
Instead,
I am resting on a verdant shore
watching the sunlight sparkle
across gentle ripples of water
under an azure sky.
Sometimes it pays
to swim against the tide.
Photo101 Assignment Three: Water
While sitting on the porch
of the rustic cabin in the quiet pine forest,
I sense the faint beginnings
of the restoration of my soul.
I scan the wooded vistas,
seeing so much farther than
the usual confines of my restricted horizons,
seeing so much deeper into the reaches
of my self-forsaken heart.
Listening to the magpies
and the ospreys and jays, and
those pale green birds with the
beautiful songs that dance across the air,
I feel my inner voice begin to hum,
seeking out that melody that has for far too long
been scorned into silence.
I inhale deeply of the fresh forest air,
and I am finally able to exhale, long and slow,
releasing the toxic fear and tension
that I have been holding inside me
as if it were my last dying breath.
I can abide comfortably for once
among the trusted few that accompany me.
A light joke, a sweet hug…
fists and jaw and heart unclenching
like a leaf unfolding into new growth,
I open to the freedom that is offered
in the security of this sacred environment.
It is the quenching of a thirst long overdue.
Amidst the stillness of nature,
my own nature steps tentatively forward,
and I welcome my reawakening soul
as one would welcome the arrival of an old friend…
while sitting on the porch.
1906 Peter Iredale Shipwreck, Warrenton OR
Tall vertical stones with their leaning rock consorts float within a sea of white sand and gravel raked to perfection into rippling waves in a contrastingly calm, even plane. This little garden, an oasis of zen energy, unassuming and nonsanctimonious, helps keep me afloat when I find myself tossed by waves of undisciplined thought, reminding me that I - like the garden - am an amalgam, not of sand and gravel and rock, but of body, mind and spirit; and that I, too, am perfectly patterned for my own even plane of unassuming and nonsanctimonious existence.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Afloat
Often alone, seldom lonely. My thoughts are with me wherever I go. They bring creativity, wonder, awe, memories and wisdom. And sometimes they bring pain, sorrow, guilt and fear. I accept them all, they are what they are. After all, one can't always be good company.
Photo #5 for Blogging U’s Photography 101 course. Subject: solitude.
What Rhymes with Stanza? 