Both poetry and the photograph that (demands you take it) come from the same place.
Some Hidden Glory
There is beyond our grasp
some great glory
radiant with mystery
its source hidden
from mortal eyes
That joy beyond perception
beckons our souls
brings hope to our lives
even as we struggle to climb
on wounded limbs
with blinded eyes
towards that which we can not know
until
our time is full
©David Cale
The photograph was taken at about 1am in depths of The
Abbey de Mont St Michel in Brittany France. I sat entranced for a very long time.
See http://wikitravel.org/en/Mont_Saint_Michel
There is beyond our grasp
some great glory
radiant with mystery
its source hidden
from mortal eyes
That joy beyond perception
beckons our souls
brings hope to our lives
even as we struggle to climb
on wounded limbs
with blinded eyes
towards that which we can not know
until
our time is full
©David Cale
The photograph was taken at about 1am in depths of The
Abbey de Mont St Michel in Brittany France. I sat entranced for a very long time.
See http://wikitravel.org/en/Mont_Saint_Michel
FALLING OUT
I lay down
under the night sky
staring into the two hundred billion stars
strewn across its blackness,
I
felt
my
mind
fall
into this vastness that created me.
And were it not
for the warp and weave
of space and time
plastering my body against
this dust mote of dust motes,
this earth.....
my home.....
Oh,
I would have followed
©David Cale
I took this photograph of our Milky Way Galaxy from the top of one of the volcanoes on the Big Island of Hawaii near the cluster of telescopes built there. They are here at 4500 m as this is the best place for a research telescope next to being in orbit.
Clear clear skies, almost no light pollution and stable air make for skies that take your breath away... particularly at 4500 m. :)
I lay down
under the night sky
staring into the two hundred billion stars
strewn across its blackness,
I
felt
my
mind
fall
into this vastness that created me.
And were it not
for the warp and weave
of space and time
plastering my body against
this dust mote of dust motes,
this earth.....
my home.....
Oh,
I would have followed
©David Cale
I took this photograph of our Milky Way Galaxy from the top of one of the volcanoes on the Big Island of Hawaii near the cluster of telescopes built there. They are here at 4500 m as this is the best place for a research telescope next to being in orbit.
Clear clear skies, almost no light pollution and stable air make for skies that take your breath away... particularly at 4500 m. :)
DANDELION REBELLION
I stopped for lunch in the park
and found the grass overrun
by cheerful yellow explosions of
those rebel dandelions
Comrades, I'm sure of those
that laugh at me
from my suburban lawn.
Later
in a shift of time
they will
have matured
(some say gone to seed)
so that the wind
can take their wisdom
and sow rebellion
in other conformist lawns
* *
* *
*
*
;
© David Cale
I stopped for lunch in the park
and found the grass overrun
by cheerful yellow explosions of
those rebel dandelions
Comrades, I'm sure of those
that laugh at me
from my suburban lawn.
Later
in a shift of time
they will
have matured
(some say gone to seed)
so that the wind
can take their wisdom
and sow rebellion
in other conformist lawns
* *
* *
*
*
;
© David Cale
THE BLINDING (Sept 11, 2001)
New York
seat of wealth and power
Washington
seat of might and rule
Like Lear you sat not knowing
that the blasted heath
and the vicious blinding
would fly unbidden
Twin towers of the west
illusions of a kingdom now fallen
leaving as the new centre of our lives
an empty wilderness of the soul
And from under the desolation
we can just hear the king’s wail
a millennium old
yet still echoing in storms such as these
“Let the great gods... Find their enemies now. Tremble, wretch,
That has within thee undivulged crimes, Unwhipped of justice.
I am more sinned against than sinning.”
Here the kings and servants of commerce were slain
Those who worshipped and trusted in
the gods of wealth and power
and felt invulnerable in their fortress
The other gods look down
some cry - some laugh
The CNN anchor intones
“Poor naked wretches, where ever you are,
in this pitiless storm,
How shall our houseless heads..., defend you
From seasons such as these?
O, we have taken too little care of this!”
Behind him
faces of those who ‘spent’ their lives
delivering their hate spawned by fanatic belief
brief meaning found in the free trading of
eyes for eyes
blind faith for blind faith
And so we sit in our walled up countries
the barbarian at the gate
fear in our gut feeding the hate in our hearts
transfixed by the image
terrified that our world we thought we knew
has collapsed in ruin
leaving only rubble beneath our feet
We wonder if the poison pen
has touched our unopened mail
And we howl as Lear over his daughter's body
dead from his blind folly
“Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life....
And these no breath at all?
They will come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!”
©David Cale
Quotes are from William Shakespeare’s play “King Lear”
New York
seat of wealth and power
Washington
seat of might and rule
Like Lear you sat not knowing
that the blasted heath
and the vicious blinding
would fly unbidden
Twin towers of the west
illusions of a kingdom now fallen
leaving as the new centre of our lives
an empty wilderness of the soul
And from under the desolation
we can just hear the king’s wail
a millennium old
yet still echoing in storms such as these
“Let the great gods... Find their enemies now. Tremble, wretch,
That has within thee undivulged crimes, Unwhipped of justice.
I am more sinned against than sinning.”
Here the kings and servants of commerce were slain
Those who worshipped and trusted in
the gods of wealth and power
and felt invulnerable in their fortress
The other gods look down
some cry - some laugh
The CNN anchor intones
“Poor naked wretches, where ever you are,
in this pitiless storm,
How shall our houseless heads..., defend you
From seasons such as these?
O, we have taken too little care of this!”
Behind him
faces of those who ‘spent’ their lives
delivering their hate spawned by fanatic belief
brief meaning found in the free trading of
eyes for eyes
blind faith for blind faith
And so we sit in our walled up countries
the barbarian at the gate
fear in our gut feeding the hate in our hearts
transfixed by the image
terrified that our world we thought we knew
has collapsed in ruin
leaving only rubble beneath our feet
We wonder if the poison pen
has touched our unopened mail
And we howl as Lear over his daughter's body
dead from his blind folly
“Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life....
And these no breath at all?
They will come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!”
©David Cale
Quotes are from William Shakespeare’s play “King Lear”
The rising sun makes mystery of what is hidden
by the cocoon of fog that enfolds the land
until
it's fire burns its way into another Autumn day
©David Cale
by the cocoon of fog that enfolds the land
until
it's fire burns its way into another Autumn day
©David Cale
MORNING MIST
In the morning of our day
a mist shrouds our sight
In the heat of day
often in seeing too far
find we can not bear
the knowing or being known
In the dusk of our day
we consume the long looking back
and yearn for the mist of the morning
to ease our pain
In the night of our day
we wonder at the stars
©David Cale
In the morning of our day
a mist shrouds our sight
In the heat of day
often in seeing too far
find we can not bear
the knowing or being known
In the dusk of our day
we consume the long looking back
and yearn for the mist of the morning
to ease our pain
In the night of our day
we wonder at the stars
©David Cale
At The Edge Of Wonder
The sunset of the day
lengthens the shadows of
our knowing
I turn and seek your warmth
and the reassurance
of another morning
But you know, as I
that the promise of
tomorrow is found
not in any certainty of waking
but in the cycle of earth
and the nuclear hearth
that warms us
So we sleep in hope
and are grateful for each
new dawning
©David Cale
The sunset of the day
lengthens the shadows of
our knowing
I turn and seek your warmth
and the reassurance
of another morning
But you know, as I
that the promise of
tomorrow is found
not in any certainty of waking
but in the cycle of earth
and the nuclear hearth
that warms us
So we sleep in hope
and are grateful for each
new dawning
©David Cale
ILLUSIONS OF EXISTENCE
We sail on the waves
of a particle sea,
mathematical shadows.
Here thing and nothing,
lose their contradiction
and dance a Heisenberg waltz,
the uncertainty of all we know as certain
masked.
Atoms
each a tree falling in the forest of matter
non reality
surges of probability, endlessly rolling
not yet knowing their time and space
until
sentient glance reveals
something resembling
the illusions of our existence.
©David Cale
Taken at the Tropicana Night Club in Cuba.
We sail on the waves
of a particle sea,
mathematical shadows.
Here thing and nothing,
lose their contradiction
and dance a Heisenberg waltz,
the uncertainty of all we know as certain
masked.
Atoms
each a tree falling in the forest of matter
non reality
surges of probability, endlessly rolling
not yet knowing their time and space
until
sentient glance reveals
something resembling
the illusions of our existence.
©David Cale
Taken at the Tropicana Night Club in Cuba.
Deja Vu All Over Again
Am I a cosmic dream?
Looking out is effortless
inward vision is another matter
because in my warrens of neurons
echos my lost child’s wail
Searching I stumble
down blind corridors
and row upon row of locked doors
What lies behind them?
Vestiges of past lives lived
or memories etched in DNA?
Simultaneous realities
both known and not
familiar as Schrodinger’s cat
half dead, half alive
and like me
frozen for fear of looking Now water - I am
nine tenths submerged
in the quantum sea’s
imaginary waves
Old memories drift like fog
become dim and
melt at the edges
and too soon I am absorbed
into the ocean
of all the dreams dreamed
Deja vu all over again
©David Cale
I took this photo one misty morning at a retreat center in Maryland USA called Rising Phoenix.
Am I a cosmic dream?
Looking out is effortless
inward vision is another matter
because in my warrens of neurons
echos my lost child’s wail
Searching I stumble
down blind corridors
and row upon row of locked doors
What lies behind them?
Vestiges of past lives lived
or memories etched in DNA?
Simultaneous realities
both known and not
familiar as Schrodinger’s cat
half dead, half alive
and like me
frozen for fear of looking Now water - I am
nine tenths submerged
in the quantum sea’s
imaginary waves
Old memories drift like fog
become dim and
melt at the edges
and too soon I am absorbed
into the ocean
of all the dreams dreamed
Deja vu all over again
©David Cale
I took this photo one misty morning at a retreat center in Maryland USA called Rising Phoenix.
Andromeda's SONG
I walked under November branches
with Andromeda singing her song
two million years on it way
to this night
As with the ancient histories of her stars.
I too walked towards life not yet lived
unaware of what time and space
will bring.
Even now as I reach out towards the future
or grasp at my trailing past
They elude my every effort to touch them
That which will be, is not yet,
and may never be
and that which was
has turned to to impenetrable stone.
Leaving now as all there really is.
©David Cale
I took this photo with my camera (Nikon D500) from near the Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii where some of the finest telescopes in the world operate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauna_Kea_Observatory
I walked under November branches
with Andromeda singing her song
two million years on it way
to this night
As with the ancient histories of her stars.
I too walked towards life not yet lived
unaware of what time and space
will bring.
Even now as I reach out towards the future
or grasp at my trailing past
They elude my every effort to touch them
That which will be, is not yet,
and may never be
and that which was
has turned to to impenetrable stone.
Leaving now as all there really is.
©David Cale
I took this photo with my camera (Nikon D500) from near the Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii where some of the finest telescopes in the world operate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauna_Kea_Observatory
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