Core issues

We revisit a few of our favorite places -- at Olana, again -- and a few of our favorite images, but with a different twist, looking for new insights and searching for a few edges of perspective. What are our central issues? What brings us together, and possibly, what drives us apart? Look at these images -- study them -- and consider the musings alongside. blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Bones, akimbo

I cannot help
the necessity of this:
I believe in centrality,
that as beings we loosen
and loan ourselves toward
a restless core.
You must disabuse me of it,
if you can, or else learn better
how to stickle less aggressively
against it -- fight me not.
Limb yourself to my arching.
Bones grow lovely when they
shape themselves accordingly.
Never interest for the time --
it passes of its own will;
and we will sure outlast it,
stems and all.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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High and mighty

A cupola above the walk attracted our attention, but once Andrew and I got a fair glimpse from this Victorian house, we were sold: amazing neighborhood, amazing stories, amazing views of the Hudson as well. Thanks to our new friend Jennifer, we got a grand tour of a gorgeous period home and show scenes from the perch. Photos and commentary at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Hudson walk

Can you see their leeward
side from here, my soul? Can you see
their colors?
The ice is coming fast
and mist is thick
as a new dollar,
just not so bright.
If faith could walk
the ten thousand thousand
steps I've laid
between supper and this perch oh soul
he would know the berth of sleep
will never come until I've set
my careful eyes
on that stray boat.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Dream another dream...

High on the Hudson, Olana mesmerizes and when Frederic Church was called away each winter, he must have felt that he was leaving his greatest love. Celebrating the majesty of the Catskills, the Hudson , and painterly beauty in photos and in words, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Hudson memoire

You appeared to me,
just over the rise
as in the milky glaze
of a dream half recognized
through the glaze of lace-curtain
memory skein
and long-awaiting eyes.
How could I forget you?
Outstretched and captive,
no longer remote as you once were,
I sensed the web between us
thicken and draw close,
the tide around us gather
and sustain.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Green thoughts

There is something about the lush lush greenness of a deep dark forest of pine trees -- the tall, invincible stillness of it -- that makes us ponder the firmness of our humanity. How long have we really been here, anyway? perhaps not so long as we often like to think. These forest views give us some much-needed perspective on ourselves and our way of being in the world and with other humans if not other living things. More on photos of trees and a story by Native American writer Sherman Alexie at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Majesty

How far we have to go
most days these days
before we can rest our eyes
on anything like these
towering pines.
When we see them --
aching and arching
their spiny spires
deep into the realms
of mountains, the realms
of eagles, we catch our breath.
For a time at least we feel quite
simple and quite small in substance,
when standing thigh to thigh
with these green beasts.
We doff our hats, wipe our eyes,
and ascertain the difference
in years, the difference
in kingdoms.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Change is good

When the leaves change color, the birds fly south -- sound and image, inextricably linked, inextricably complementary, the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom intertwined. At Thanksgiving we are at a crossroads -- a season of changes. Photos and discussion at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Knowledge of change

Fairly crackling
in the dry November
wind hastening south,
like the droves of birds
lighting from the lake
each frost-astounded morning with their
ceremonious series of haranks,
these sifting trees are silent,
only rustling and wrestling
a bit with their inward maneuvers of colorings --
now umber, now vermilion,
now goldenrod.
The same fires, breathing within them
yearns in the wings of those flying legions --
turn. You must be quick about it.
And so, they vary onward,
adept and diversely they are called,
fundamental
as a stone
wearing its mossy side out
against the water's bale.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Mixed media

The forest floor in Saratoga National Historic Park, NY is both coniferous and deciduous -- a mixed forest floor -- which is great for the wildlife of the region. A little discussion, some photos, and meditation on the meaning of mixed media, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Forest dusk

Lush composition,
armed with scaling tendrils
writhing underfoot
swirling like squirrels
amid the swift discussion
of the needles and the leaves --
it's possible a lark will light
here, or a doe will soundlessly
hasten its fawn to sleep.
In the dim and dusk,
the shadow rusky softness
of the earth-bound forest
the dispensation of the oaks and pines
gathers color, shores up light,
protects the denizens of the night.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Revisionist history

Is it possible that autumn is just as much a season of renewal as springtime is? Think about it -- the bursts of color, the gathering of the harvest in all its abundance. It's a celebration of life all in its own right. Time to give autumn its due. We're in the orchard with glowing photos and rolling commentary, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Autumn revision

The wreath of leaves
you sweep undying
at my feet --
I cannot turn away
but space to cherish
another day.
Golden mead gathers
hanging low and rakishly
yet I bow my head
for none other.
Sweep my soul
clean from this rounded earth;
leap with greenest pleasure
to the endless change.
I cannot loose away
these last poor tidings
but save to cherish
a coming day.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Full circle

Art in the age of mechanical reproduction is not without its joys and its challenges. We have here seven still shots of an eagle flying over the lake, seven in a series categorizing its pattern of flight. Visualize, imagine, and consider the possibilities of zoetropes, the camera obscura, and the works of Eadweard Muybridge. Words and images at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Zootrope

If we were turning
in a perfect cambric
circle -- you and I
cut out of sky
like God's own missives,
jet like letters
countered against the rest --
if we were auspices
sent to tag the vastness
into shaping a formality,
we are doing our best;
with each gesture alluding
to the next, creating semblance
of totality.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Into the woods

Hunting is one of those issues that divides a lot of people: is it right or wrong to hunt overpopulated creatures like deer and black bears, which can be a nuisance to humans? We visit the Mighty Moose river in the Adirondacks and observe some hunters at their task while pondering the question. Words and images at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Pursuit

Flak-footed
gray as grim
to light less
upon the crisp furze --
hardly hear it crackle --
in the steaming distance
there might be a flash
of feather or tail.
How to limp that
buttress over one shoulder
without firing a charge
and hobble home,
should the morning prove
an utter rout?

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Seeing double

Every once in a while, I go back to an image and find a whole new way of looking at it and writing about it. This shouldn't be so surprising; after all, writing is a process, and all writing is really re-vision. Thinking about this, along with some discussion of Francis Bacon...words and images at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Uno momento

Broken and stemmed
as the functionless base
of the delft-blue
Caravaggio,
there is no pink in you,
no life, no whelp
of joy --
in seizing your spartan
limb I capture
only the harsh bronzed
emblem of a bereft moment
I thought I had left behind.
I see it follows me like
 a shackle on one foot,
like a bruise
that will not heal.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Ancient and modern

Every which way, and no one is sure which way to go. It's sometimes difficult to negotiate the chaos of modern spaces, like the mall, just as it was probably difficult to negotiate the chaos of ancient spaces like the agora of Athens or the labyrinth even. Some of us have better tools than others, and we can help those who have less means. A little holiday thinking, some photos and commentary -- blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Agora

Every
which way --
I don't know where to go.
No familiar sign points
the direction of home,
and here only callow leaves
frank their minion paths
and never offer true assistance.
In more modern places,
there is a similar loss
of locational nuance --
where am I? which way
have I come from just now? perhaps
it is best to follow a trail
that's left in twine or to lay down in the center
in a sheaf of ferns
going at all directions
so that upon waking
I may pluck the nearest one
and follow only that
to safety.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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If a tree Falls in the forest...

What creates the magic of the trees in fall? Is it their colors or the fact that we will miss them when they're gone, that we miss the green of summer? Exhibit A: four magical photos of fall in the Adirondacks, almost as if they had sprung from Dutch paintings. Read and see more at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Tree magick

No one told you
to hurry up and prepare the way --
the time comes when
the time comes already,
and you are merely
in the right place,
by chance or by design
no one's the wiser.
A mountain whispered
in my ear that you
were late to bed and late
to rise; is it true?
I'd have to say that you
put up for all appearances
a pretty nice front --
the even-tempered sort,
the kind of honest sport
one likes to get to know.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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