A pair of eagle statues at Skylands State Park in NJ inspires a reverie on the values and virtues of homeland success: what does it mean to hold onto what is yours? More thoughts and images on looking into 2012, here at blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Memorial: on success
Wing craft,
shoulder set against
what past and future enemies
may demand --
each feather burden furnished
to a purpose, burnished
to a light-hard task.
Nothing is easy
to the tested arc;
nothing curves simple
to the proven pilot.
All is the ghastly
potentiality
of the feasible loss,
the hateful failure.
Every superlative mark
enshrines a deeper curse:
the will to prevail.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn
view with images 3292, 3291, 3293, 3294, and 3271 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Blues traveler
A stained glass rendition of the madonna and child at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC launches a jazz meditation on the meaning of Christmas and getting outside yourself. Our final blog before the holidays and a short break -- wishing all of you a wonderful season of cheer with loved ones far and near. Photos and commentary at blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Little clover
Leaves upon your head,
how we miss you when we dread
our last best hope.
Little clover --
won't you please roll over
without a grave
and tell us merrily
some thankful thought
that we can save until tomorrow comes.
Clover, clover --
we've asked your mother
where you've gone but she
said ask your father's best friend.
Love, I fear, is a fear
that's painted red.
Clover, soothe yourself --
ease, ease the time.
Your mother's here for you.
Now ease the time.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn
view with images 0750 and 0748 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Little clover
Leaves upon your head,
how we miss you when we dread
our last best hope.
Little clover --
won't you please roll over
without a grave
and tell us merrily
some thankful thought
that we can save until tomorrow comes.
Clover, clover --
we've asked your mother
where you've gone but she
said ask your father's best friend.
Love, I fear, is a fear
that's painted red.
Clover, soothe yourself --
ease, ease the time.
Your mother's here for you.
Now ease the time.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn
view with images 0750 and 0748 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Monday, December 19, 2011
The cattle are lowing...
Yes, the Herefords of Valatie, NY, are back -- and they star in their very own manger-side story: how is it that animals played such a prominent part in that first Christmas? Why are animals so much a part of ourselves? Great photos of these spectacular beasts, happy at the holidays, and commentary, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Bovinity
There were cows
in the manger scene --
I am sure on that.
I don't know if they
were careful about their
sounds or of their unambiguous
but nonetheless distinctive cattle scent.
These things I cannot speak for,
their having happened long before I
or any other of you all were ever born;
but one thing I can certainly claim:
I know the cows are gentle,
and gently lowing creatures, and
may have added to that frame,
to that dear picture so ingenuous,
so pallid and so frail
it almost fails but most sustains
where it is weak, like animals' bodies,
limitless though meek.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn
view with images 3188, 3184, 3190, and 3186 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Bovinity
There were cows
in the manger scene --
I am sure on that.
I don't know if they
were careful about their
sounds or of their unambiguous
but nonetheless distinctive cattle scent.
These things I cannot speak for,
their having happened long before I
or any other of you all were ever born;
but one thing I can certainly claim:
I know the cows are gentle,
and gently lowing creatures, and
may have added to that frame,
to that dear picture so ingenuous,
so pallid and so frail
it almost fails but most sustains
where it is weak, like animals' bodies,
limitless though meek.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn
view with images 3188, 3184, 3190, and 3186 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Friday, December 16, 2011
Marley's ghost revisited
The capitol building on State Street in Albany, NY, provides some ominous and curious faces to take a look into the coming season: how do we glimpse into a man's soul? Is it with a checkbook or a palette? More curious questions and thoughtful images and words, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Comicaria
How did you manage
to get yourself cast
for the everlasting age --
miracles of fate overshadow,
poor ponderances of lives,
so unlike yours --
but the creases and the valleys speak:
he was a man worth something!
how odd was that now, in parody,
your visage vaunts
according to the thoughts
someone or other once had held.
Quixotic, strange --
you'll never know how
two hundred winters tales
have held their changes
on your once illustrious shape.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn
view with images 3197, 3199, 3201, and 3202 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Comicaria
How did you manage
to get yourself cast
for the everlasting age --
miracles of fate overshadow,
poor ponderances of lives,
so unlike yours --
but the creases and the valleys speak:
he was a man worth something!
how odd was that now, in parody,
your visage vaunts
according to the thoughts
someone or other once had held.
Quixotic, strange --
you'll never know how
two hundred winters tales
have held their changes
on your once illustrious shape.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn
view with images 3197, 3199, 3201, and 3202 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Heaven and earth
Thar is no rose of swych virtu/as is the rose that bar Jesu. These lines from a 1420 poem inspire not only the poem for today but also provide a backdrop for thoughts about the magnificent Tiffany rose window and other beautiful features of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Albany, NY. Photos and commentary, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info
There is no rose
Virtue beyond mortal grace,
and that grace begins with a lowly founding place;
roses are not strong enough
to build upon, but when
they guild a world
with faceted beams, that is a world
worth watching grow to fullness.
Thar is no rose of such virtu
as is the rose that bar Jesu.
Many lights come and go
but none so closely linger
as those we prize
most highly.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn
view with images 3207, 3219, 3204, 3215, 3216, 3217, 3218, and 3221 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info
There is no rose
Virtue beyond mortal grace,
and that grace begins with a lowly founding place;
roses are not strong enough
to build upon, but when
they guild a world
with faceted beams, that is a world
worth watching grow to fullness.
Thar is no rose of such virtu
as is the rose that bar Jesu.
Many lights come and go
but none so closely linger
as those we prize
most highly.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn
view with images 3207, 3219, 3204, 3215, 3216, 3217, 3218, and 3221 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Monday, December 12, 2011
Dog day...
Frozen snow sculptures made by a Kinderhook, NY native inspire a meditation on the relationship between dogs and humans and the relationship between humans and the holidays. Thought-provoking commentary and photos of the artwork by Herminio at blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Master man
You create me
in the image you best beget
time after time -- although
I am hurdling and longing
to prove you wrong,
I prove you right in every
last regard, engage my dignity,
my alignment with your needs.
Time along the ages, you and I,
we have shaped ourselves
along similar paths and somehow
grown to love the same courses,
same landscapes, the same shady spots;
I am time upon my lapse --
my time is short with you --
if I do not know you as a brother,
then perhaps we are something like.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn
view with images 3177, 3178, 3179, 3180, 3181 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Master man
You create me
in the image you best beget
time after time -- although
I am hurdling and longing
to prove you wrong,
I prove you right in every
last regard, engage my dignity,
my alignment with your needs.
Time along the ages, you and I,
we have shaped ourselves
along similar paths and somehow
grown to love the same courses,
same landscapes, the same shady spots;
I am time upon my lapse --
my time is short with you --
if I do not know you as a brother,
then perhaps we are something like.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn
view with images 3177, 3178, 3179, 3180, 3181 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Long ago, far away
Along with our Christmas theme, we consider the role of the angels at the birth of Christ -- how has this been represented? What can it mean to us everyday people who dwell in the ravages of hustle and bustle? Some comfort and joy to be found, with photos and discussion, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info
To sleep
If none have hovered,
none have wavered above,
who knows the fate
who knows what would have come.
A child cries in the night --
many may have heard.
But eaves of wings may interfere
and dampen all the word
and still surround like doves;
this they'll never let from
earnest issuance.
He is guarded and assuaged
by the muffled downbeat
and the faint occipeter,
a semi-soft perimeter, --
at last he sleeps.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn
view with images 0746 and 0745 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info
To sleep
If none have hovered,
none have wavered above,
who knows the fate
who knows what would have come.
A child cries in the night --
many may have heard.
But eaves of wings may interfere
and dampen all the word
and still surround like doves;
this they'll never let from
earnest issuance.
He is guarded and assuaged
by the muffled downbeat
and the faint occipeter,
a semi-soft perimeter, --
at last he sleeps.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn
view with images 0746 and 0745 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)