1 Today I have joined Bloggers for Peace. I like their philosophy.
Bloggers for Peace
2 I have long loved the poetry of Pablo Neruda and on the Bloggers for Peace blog found this gem from him that I hadn’t heard before. As one who loves cooking and words, I really appreciate this.
Let me give you one of my favourites, a really beautiful evocation of that lovely fresh fruit, the lemon. Read it slowly and you can taste the lemon as you do so.
A Lemon
Out of lemon flowers
loosed
on the moonlight, love’s
lashed and insatiable
essences,
sodden with fragrance,
the lemon tree’s yellow
emerges,
the lemons
move down
from the tree’s planetariumDelicate merchandise!
The harbors are big with it-
bazaars
for the light and the
barbarous gold.
We open
the halves
of a miracle,
and a clotting of acids
brims
into the starry
divisions:
creation’s
original juices,
irreducible, changeless,
alive:
so the freshness lives on
in a lemon,
in the sweet-smelling house of the rind,
the proportions, arcane and acerb.Cutting the lemon
the knife
leaves a little cathedral:
alcoves unguessed by the eye
that open acidulous glass
to the light; topazes
riding the droplets,
altars,
aromatic facades.So, while the hand
holds the cut of the lemon,
half a world
on a trencher,
the gold of the universe
wells
to your touch:
a cup yellow
with miracles,
a breast and a nipple
perfuming the earth;
a flashing made fruitage,
the diminutive fire of a planet.
3 Tonight, in the wind and the rain, we have been to Truro to see the beautiful City of Lights Parade which warms the cold winter streets with the glow of enormous paper lanterns made of twisted willow and tissue paper. Here is a selection of the ones I was able to photograph. Click on any one to see the detail. The last one is the Tyrannosaurus Rex that I helped twist the willows for. It is made by Laura Frances Martin.
Tyrannosaurus Rex by Laura Frances Martin
theamateurcamera
November 22, 2013 at 4:18 pm
Loved the poem and those paper lanterns are incredible, they must have been quite impressive to watch. Your photos give the impression that you had good weather for it? I imagine it would be quite tricky with them in the wind and rain! 🙂
theamateurcamera
November 22, 2013 at 4:19 pm
P.S. I love the Dove!
mybeautfulthings
November 22, 2013 at 4:24 pm
Me too but the dinosaur is my favourite, perhaps because I help to twist the withies. 🙂
theamateurcamera
November 22, 2013 at 4:32 pm
Of course the dinosaur is awesome too, you did a great job twisting those withies! They’re all great, lots of talented people involved and so lovely that the local school children got to help out too! 🙂
mybeautfulthings
November 22, 2013 at 4:23 pm
It had been a ghastly day, rain, gales, hailstorms, so they thought of postponing. Fortunately the wind died down and we only had two very short showers so it all went ahead – and was brilliant as always! 🙂
So glad you like the poem – I just love it! It makes my mouth water! 🙂
theamateurcamera
November 22, 2013 at 4:29 pm
I’m so glad it all calmed down enough for the parade to go ahead, especially after all the hard work of so many people! 🙂
Alex Autin
November 21, 2013 at 3:37 pm
WOW! Those paper lanterns are amazingly impressive! Great photos 🙂
Hudson Howl
November 21, 2013 at 4:58 am
My peace loving side, growing up was oddly enough, influenced in part by George Carlin (a couple good quotes come to mind, though not repeatable here) -goes to conscience with a wee bit of a sharp tongue at times. The voice for and of peace is varied but the goal is the same, as I read you joined ‘Bloggers for Peace’ , I thought good for her. Makes perfect sense and so did your choice of the LEMON once I read it.
The light festival, the glowing forms in contrast to the dark of night, people in the peripherals becoming layered forms due to shutter speed and f-stop all very much Rembrandt-ish light and dark. Enjoyed the photos, not an easy task to shoot at night.
makagutu
November 21, 2013 at 4:33 am
The city of lights looks great.
If only lemon tasted better, I would be on my way to buy one. I like lemon tea though
babyjill7...Marilyn Griffin
November 21, 2013 at 12:55 am
the rain doesn’t hurt them???
Hil
November 20, 2013 at 9:26 pm
As always The City of Lights looks amazing.
mybeautfulthings
November 20, 2013 at 9:37 pm
It was. Aren’t the artists clever? I love how all the local schools are involved too. 🙂