a sharing of readings, thoughts, and photographs
murmur of voices
unheeded by today’s
regrets of yesterday
Image submitted for Dogwood Photography’s annual 52-week photography challenge.
Week 9 Inspiration: Mood (Your Artistic Inspiration this week is the mood you are feeling today. Take that mood and use it to create art.)
As evening arrives, sorrow visits.
Your phantom, yearned for throughout the day
never appeared.
Images submitted in response to Jenn’s (Traveling at Wits End) weekly photo challenge: repeating patterns
contemplating snow clouds —
whitened landscape, I am part
of the winter scene ~bckofford
You can learn about the pine only from the pine, or about the bamboo only from bamboo. When you see an object, you must leave your subjective pre-occupation with yourself; otherwise you impose yourself on the object, and do not learn. The object and yourself must become one, and from that feeling of oneness issues your poetry. However well phrased it may be, if your feeling is not natural—if the object and our self are separate—then your poetry is not true poetry but merely your subjective counterfeit. ~ Basho
a white egg, on a white plate, on a white table cloth…submitted in response to Jenn’s Traveling at Wit’s End photo challenge: white on white
None calls upon me, or remembers me in my mountain village.
On the reeds by the thin hedge, the Autumn winds are sighing.
~The Sarashina Diary, A.D. 1009-1059 (Diaries of Old Japan)
I am like dew on the grass–
And pitiable wherever I may be–
But especially am I oppressed with sadness
In a field with a thin growth of reeds.
~The Sarashina Diary, 1009-1059 (Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan
The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. No one is [master of himself] if he have it not. An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence. But it is easier to define this ideal than to give practical instruction for bringing it about. ~ William James
The rules of this three-day quote challenge are to post a favourite quote every day for three days, and pass on the challenge to three other bloggers. You can do this at any time you like – even next year – and you can also say, “No thanks.”
While I’ve enjoyed being challenged by others, I find it difficult to invite one blogger over another, so if you would like to join in please accept this invitation to share your favorite quotes. Thank you Amy at The World is a Book for extending an invitation. It eases all those times in the playground when I was among the last to be chosen to be on a team. _()_
The spring sunlight, flowers blooming, and green trees create a landscape that looks like embroidery. This is an object of perception and it’s a beautiful thing to focus on. …if we don’t consider the role of our mind, and just focus on what we see as the independent reality around us, there will be contradictions.
The Vietnamese poet Nguyen Du said, ‘When a person is sad, the scenery is never happy.’ How we are feeling determines how we see the world. Why are some people able to experience happiness when they look at the moon and see its beauty, while others see the same moon as sad or depressing? This question can’t be answered unless both the subject [person] and object [moon] are taken into account.
~Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Battles
