lunes, 7 de enero de 2013

Endless Air

When I saw this photo, I was immediately struck by a sense of openess, of great possibility and of serenity. The image is strongly reminiscent of Larkin's wonderful 'High Windows'   - a poem on societal bonds, on perception and on what it means to be free  - which I've added below. 

http://www.591photography.com/

When I see a couple of kids
And guess he’s fucking her and she’s   
Taking pills or wearing a diaphragm,   
I know this is paradise


Everyone old has dreamed of all their lives—   
Bonds and gestures pushed to one side
Like an outdated combine harvester,
And everyone young going down the long slide


To happiness, endlessly. I wonder if   
Anyone looked at me, forty years back,   
And thought, That’ll be the life;
No God any more, or sweating in the dark


About hell and that, or having to hide   
What you think of the priest. He
And his lot will all go down the long slide   

Like free bloody birds. And immediately


Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:   
The sun-comprehending glass,
And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.

Again and Again


Again and again, however we know the landscape of love
and the little churchyard there, with its sorrowing names,
and the frighteningly silent abyss into which the others
fall: again and again the two of us walk out together
under the ancient trees, lie down again and again
among the flowers, face to face with the sky.       

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875  - 1926) 

miércoles, 2 de enero de 2013

Starlings Over Rome

Paolo Patrizi's photos, all the more striking in black and white, capture flocks of starlings as they merge and split over the Rome horizon. 

The official name for this ethereal grouping, diverging and regrouping is murmuring.

Every shape printed against the skyline is a testimony to the power and grace of unity.  






a poem to start the year - courtesy of E.E Cummings

since feeling is first
who pays any attention 
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady I swear by all flowers. Don't cry
-the best gesture of my brain is less than
you eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis


miércoles, 14 de noviembre de 2012

We Are Foreigners: We Have No Rights

Amnesty International publish damning report on systematic human rights violations against migrants in Libya.


Life in Libya is worse for african migrants, asylum seekers and refugees now than under Gadaffi.

Police and Militiamen arbitrarily arrest, detains, beat, sexually abuse and torture migrants  - men, women and children alike.

Europe must stop deals with Libya unitl the country respects the rights of asylum seekers and refugees as stiuplated by international law.

The abuse in Libya forces many migrants to seek sanctuary in Europe. 
Some perish on the journey. So far this year, over 400 migrants have drowned crossing the Mediterranean. 

For the full report, see link: 


martes, 30 de octubre de 2012

The Hurricane



The tree lay down 
on the garage roof 
and stretched, You 
have your heaven, 
it said, go to it. 


by William Carlos Williams