The name – of it – is “Autumn” –
The hue – of it – is Blood –
An Artery – upon the Hill –
A Vein – along the Road –
Great Globules – in the Alleys –
And Oh, the Shower of Stain –
When Winds – upset the Basin –
And spill the Scarlet Rain –
It sprinkles Bonnets – far below –
It gathers ruddy Pools –
Then – eddies like a Rose – away –
Upon Vermilion Wheels –
Emily Dickinson
ON BEAUTY (2014), from award-winning filmmaker Joanna Rudnick, is a documentary looks at beauty through the lens of fashion photographer Rick Guidotti. It highlights vibrant individuals with genetic conditions. Guidotti's photographs are a stark contrast to the sad, isolated figures seen in medical textbooks and they inspire many to change their perceptions of what it means to be beautiful.
Also see: Positive Exposure.
...my heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird -- the achieve of, the mastery of the thing! The Windhover
Bonnie Milette, a C2S member, sent us this truly amazing and uplifting link.
Dylan Winter and the Starling Murmurations
bright sunshine, clear sky
a field of scattered lanterns
autumnal prologue
(haiku and photos by Yoon Cohen)
Down Green River Road, in Williamstown, there's a small public park, River's Edge Park, that is rarely frequented. In the late summer and fall a large portion of the ground is covered by Chinese lanterns. Over the years, I have watched this ornamental weed spread over the grounds. Its orange flowers are down-hanging bells of arresting beauty.
Wayne Winterrowd wrote to us about Chinese Lanterns a few years back:
Download Chinese Lanterns - C2S
Photos taken September 5, 2013
Yoon photographing lanterns at River's Edge Park
Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals of the poor.
Thomas Gray
In a year's end section, The NY Times has collected over 260 pictures with short blurbs honoring common people who died in 2011. It is hauntingly touching. We can each think of someone to add. If any of you are moved to do so, send a photo and a vignette to C2S. Better yet, why not also honor living common people who do uncommon things? We encounter them every day.
See: The Lives They Lived
Dorothy Loney
My mother passed away on August 21st. She had only a short few years to her enjoy her only grandchild, Madeleine. The picture captures the one walk they ever took together.
Submitted by Matthew Loney
Stone HIll, July 28, 2011
Reknown potter, Toshiko Takaezu, died in Honolulu on March 9, 2011 at the age of 88. Born on June 17, 1922, in Pepeekeo, Hawaii, the middle child of 11, her parents were Japanese immigrants from Okinawa.
She was strongly influenced by her study of Zen Buddhism, and regarded her ceramic work as an outgrowth of nature and seamlessly interconnected with the rest of her life. “I see no difference between making pots, cooking and growing vegetables,” she was fond of saying. Indeed, she often used her kilns to bake chicken in clay, and dry mushrooms, apples and zucchinis.
“You are not an artist simply because you paint or sculpt or make pots that cannot be used,” she said. “An artist is a poet in his or her own medium. And when an artist produces a good piece, that work has mystery, an unsaid quality; it is alive.”
Full NY Times Obituary.
In 1975, Takaezu had a workshop at Kauai Community College which was organized by Wayne Miyata. Martha Elpern was one of the participants and has these fading photos in an album.
On a recent visit to Japan, Ginny Tanji captured a vivid image:
the hillside temple's
paper lanterns burn brightly --
10,000 Buddhas!