roots and leaves themselves alone

Welcome spring in all its glory

Roots and leaves themselves alone are these,
Scents brought to men and women from the wild woods and pond-side,
Breast-sorrel and pinks of love, fingers that wind around tighter
than vines,
Gushes from the throats of birds hid in the foliage of trees as the
sun is risen,
Breezes of land and love set from living shores to you on the living
sea, to you O sailors!
Frost-mellow’d berries and Third-month twigs offer’d fresh to young
persons wandering out in the fields when the winter breaks up,
Love-buds put before you and within you whoever you are,
Buds to be unfolded on the old terms,
If you bring the warmth of the sun to them they will open and bring
form, color, perfume, to you,
If you become the aliment and the wet they will become flowers,
fruits, tall branches and trees.

Walt Whitman ~ Leaves of Grass, 1855

Wolf Kahn ~ From Emily Foard’s Photograph II, 2013

Read Full Post »

november

Sixty Years Later I Notice, Inside A Flock Of Blackbirds,

the Venetian blinds
I dusted off

for my mother on
Saturday mornings,

closing, opening them
with the pull cord a few

times just to watch the outside
universe keep blinking,

as the flock suddenly
rises from November stubble,

hovers a few seconds,
closing, opening,

blinking, before it tilts,
then vanishes over a hill.

by David Allan Evans

 Two Birds by M.C. Escher, 1938

Read Full Post »

happy valentine’s day!

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Valentine’s Day!

A man had given all other bliss,
And all his worldly worth for this,
To waste his whole heart in one kiss
Upon her perfect lips.
~Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Kiss ~ Francesco Hayez, 1859

Read Full Post »

silent, and soft, and slow…descends the snow

Out of the bosom of the Air,
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent, and soft, and slow
Descends the snow.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Snow Scene at Utica ~ John Henry Twachtman, 1897-1899

Skofja Loka in the snow ~ Ivan Grohar, 1905

Snow and Mist ~ John Atkinson Grimshaw

Winter Landscape ~ Aleksey Savrasov, 1880-1890

Along the River, Winter ~ John Henry Twachtman, 1887-1888

View from the Window of Vincent’s Studio in Winter ~ Vincent van Gogh, 1883

Snow Effect at Veneux ~ Alfred Sisley

Snow Effect, Giverny ~ Claude Monet, 1892-1893

The Seine at Bennecourt, Winter ~ Claude Monet, 1893

Snow Effect: Winter in the Suburbs ~ Georges Seurat, 1882-1883

Winter in Yerevan ~ Martiros Saryan, 1933

The Village in Winter ~ Aleksey Savrasov, 1880-1890

Winter ~ Arkhip Kuindzhi, 1895

Snow at Louveciennes ~ Alfred Sisley, 1873

The Moret Bridge and Mills under Snow ~ Alfred Sisley, 1890

Study for the Banks of Marne in Winter ~ Camille Pissarro

Roofs under Snow ~ Gustave Caillebotte, 1878

Boulevard Haussmann in the Snow ~ Gustave Caillebotte, 1879-1881

Read Full Post »

clouds

“O it is pleasant, with a heart at ease,
Just after sunset, or by moonlight skies,
To make the shifting clouds be what you please.”
~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

photography by danielle boudrot for a thoughtful eye

Read Full Post »

life

“Everything here is alive thanks to the living of everything else.” ~ Lewis Thomas

Hiker, Oregon ~ Lisa Wu

Pink Orchid ~ Gunhild Andersen

Zebras, Botswana ~ Robert B. Haas

Dew on a Spider Web ~ Erika Skogg

Walruses, Svalbard ~ Paul Nicklen

Cottonweed ~ Laura Jean Peterman

Samburu Elephants, Kenya ~ Michael Nichols

Shrimp, Kingman Reef ~ Brian Skerry

African Buffalo, Uganda ~ Joel Sartore

Lizard, Cuba ~ Lee Daubney

Seal and Crab, Galapagos ~ Benjamin Jakabek

Oxpecker and Giraffe ~ Ben Bronselaer

Langurs, India ~ Stefano Unterthiner

Aspen Forest, Colorado ~ Ron Azevedo

Read Full Post »

happy thanksgiving!

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Feast Day in Knokke ~ Camille Pissarro, 1891

Read Full Post »

song

Song by Seamus Heaney

.

A rowan like a lipsticked girl.

Between the by-road and the main road

Alder trees at a wet and dripping distance

Stand off among the rushes.

.

There are the mud-flowers of a dialect

And the immortelles of perfect pitch

And that moment when the bird sings very close

To the music of what happens.

Read Full Post »

the wild swans at coole

The Wild Swans at Coole by William Butler Yeats

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty Swans.
The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.
I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All’s changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.
Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.
But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake’s edge or pool
Delight men’s eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?

photography by danielle boudrot for a thoughtful eye

Read Full Post »

dog around the block

Wishing you a happy summer weekend!

DOG AROUND THE BLOCK by E.B. White, 1938

Dog around the block, sniff,

Hydrant sniffing, corner, grating,

Sniffing, always, starting forward,

Backward, dragging, sniffing backward,

Leash at taut, leash at dangle,

Leash in people’s feet entangle-

Sniffing dog, apprised of smellings,

Love of life, and fronts of dwellings,

Meeting enemies,

Loving old acquaintance, sniff,

Sniffing hydrant for reminders,

Leg against the wall, raise,

Leaving grating, corner greeting,

Chance for meeting, sniff, meeting,

Meeting, telling, news of smelling,

Nose to tail, tail to nose,

Rigid, careful, pose,

Liking, partly liking, hating,

Then another hydrant, grating,

Leash at taut, leash at dangle,

Tangle, sniff, untangle

Dog around the block, sniff.

photography by danielle boudrot

Read Full Post »