parachutes
one, two, three, four…
summer’s sky

Nikon D750 f/6.3 1/50s 35 mm I00 ISO
Let me introduce you to Hu Ge, one of the top actors in China who has an amazing singing voice. His role in a series entitled, Nirvana in Fire, has been noted by fans to parallel the leading character’s rise from a tragedy. In 2006, a serious car accident that took the life of his friend and assistant, resulted in major surgeries which included over a hundred sutures on his face and neck. It would take him nearly a year to recover.

The poetry of Japan has its seeds in the human heart and mind and grows into the myriad leaves of words. Because people experience many different phenomena in this world, they express that which they think and feel in their hearts in terms of all that they see and hear. A nightingale singing among the blossoms, the voice of a pond-dwelling frog–listening to these, what living being would not respond with his own poem? It is poetry which effortlessly moves the heavens and earth, awakens the world of invisible spirits to deep feeling, softens the relationship between men and women, and consoles the hearts of fierce warriors.
~Ki no Tsurayuki, (preface Kosinsbū, ca. 905)

We live
in a tide-swept inlet,
floating, flung.
In such a world, why cling to
collections of poems?
~Izumi Shikibu, (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)

How invisibly
it changes color
in this world,
the flower
of the human heart.
~Ono No Komachi (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)

We live
in a tide-swept inlet,
floating, flung.
In such a world, why cling to
collections of poems?
~Izumi Shikibu (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)

Nikon D750 f/6.3 1/8s 35mm 100 ISO
On a troubled current
we grow old in this world–
today’s rain-filled stream
will only increase
with tears.
~Izumi Shikibu (J Hirsfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)

Nikon D750 f/7.1 1/100 s 300 mmm 100 ISO
Henri Cartier-Bresson said that photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and which no contrivance on earth can bring back again. Not even photography can bring these things back, except in the memory of those who knew them, or in the imagination those who did not.
(cited: J. Szarkowski, Looking at Photographs, pg. 124)

Lumix GX85 f/7/1 1/640s 32 mm 200 ISO
Ólafur Arnalds is a BAFTA-winning multi-instrumentalist and producer from Mosfellsbær, Iceland. Ólafur Arnalds mixes strings and piano with loops and beats crossing over from ambient/electronic to pop.
Will you turn toward me?
I am lonely too,
this autumn evening.
~Basho (F. Bowers, The Classic Traditions of Haiku)

I felt compelled to update this earlier post to invite you to visit LdG luciledegodoy who earlier noted my image inspired her to post a photograph she created a few days ago. I invite you to hop on over to visit her post and while there listen to Eva Cassidy’s wondrous voice and the story of her life.

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
We meet and we part,
Coming and going — hearts like passing clouds.
Except for the marks of a frosty-hair brush,
human traces are hard to find.
~Ryokan (K Tanahashi, Sky Above, Great Wind)

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