Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Moonlight of Clear Mind

Mark White: Poipu, Moonrise, March 18, 2011

Rainbow's End, Kauai, Hawaii

by Mark White

See Full Gallery at C2S January 2011 Collection. 

Sea Bird See

 
Mark White's inspiring picture is of a White-Tailed Tropic Bird high over Kauai, Hawaii.. 

A N.N. Taleb aphorism says: "Asking science to explain life and vital matters is equivalent to asking a grammarian to explain poetry." So, any Wiki description of Tropic Birds pales in comparison to Hopkin's ode to a bird that soars "upon the rein of a wimpling wind in his ecstasy!"

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89).  Poems.  1918.
 
The Windhover
 
To Christ our Lord
 
 
I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-   
  dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding   
  Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding   
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing   
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,           
  As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding   
  Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding   
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!   
 
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here   
  Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion           
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!   
 
  No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion   
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,   
  Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

  

A Tender Weed

Click on image to appreciate it's "amazing" nature

"I love the image capture process. 1st, I see something kinda interesting, then get a good angle to see it more clearly and click; then when it's on the computer screen, the exploration begins. Wow!, I'm so amazed at the intricacy of the world around us.: mark

This weed,called "hilahila" in Hawaii has flowers a few millimeters in diameter.  Few people see it so clearly since it is invisible in plain sight, it is "born to blush unseen."

A friend who saw this post directed me to Emily Dickinson on "Flowers."  Here's an amazing one:

How many Flowers fail in Wood --
Or perish from the Hill --
Without the privilege to know
That they are Beautiful --

How many cast a nameless Pod
Upon the nearest Breeze --
Unconscious of the Scarlet Freight --
It bear to Other Eyes --

Zhong Qiu Jie -- Mid-Autimn Festival

 
In Asia, the autumn moon festival is one of the most popular of the year's holidays.  It is held in the middle of the eight month of the Chinese lunar calendar.  The photo was taken on September 22, 2010 by Mark White of Omao, Hawaii and the poem is from Chinese Hour Blog.

Bright moon, when was your birth?
Winecup in hand, I ask the deep blue sky;
Not knowing what year it is tonight
In those celestial palaces on high. I long to fly back one the wind,
Yet dread those crystal towers, those courts of jade,
Freezing to death among those icy heights!
Instead I rise to dance with my pale shadow;
Better off, after all, in the world of men.

Rounding the red pavilion,
Stooping to look through gauze windows,
She shines on the sleepless.
The moon should know no sadness;
Why, then, is she always full when dear ones are parted?
For men the grief of parting, joy of reunion,
Just as the moon wanes and waxes, is bright or dim:
Always some flaw-and so it has been since of old.
My one wish for you, is long life
And a share in this loveliness far, far away!

Kauai's Barking Sands

On West Kauai, Barking Sands is  legend.
Lonely driftwood writhes on the vast strand;
Table-like, the forbidden island,
Niihau hovers in the distance.

This is the latest image in the "Mark White  Gallery"

 

Bee Cereus

The latest addition to the "Mark White Gallery" is this fine photo of a night blooming cereus being visited by a bee. 

Kauai is blessed with this fascinating cactus.  It grows on the south shore and can be seen by the curious person who is on the lookout.  "One of the strangest plants of the desert, the Night-bloomiing Cereus is a member of the Cactus Family that resembles nothing more than a dead bush most of the year. It is rarely seen in the wild because of its inconspicuousness. But for one midsummer's night each year, its exqusitely scented flower opens as night falls, then closes forever with the first rays of the morning sun." For more see N-BC.

Mark White Gallery

 

 

climb this nameless flower

O snail --

but slowly, slowly

(after Basho)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mark White, an artist and potter, works and lives in Omao, on Kauai.  His passions are ceramic fishing lures, surfing, Kauai and photography (not necessarily in this order).  A man of few words, his images capture the essence of the Aina.  We will fearture them periodically.  When the spirit moves us, we will add a quote or a comment.