Step out grandly to the Infinite

Infinite Expression by Jo Bradford

With stammering lips and insufficient sound
I strive and struggle to deliver right
That music of my nature, day and night
With dream and thought and feeling interwound
And only answering all the senses round
With octaves of a mystic depth and height
Which step out grandly to the infinite
From the dark edges of the sensual ground.
This song of soul I struggle to outbear
Through portals of the sense, sublime and whole,
And utter all myself into the air.

~Excerpt from "The Soul's Expression" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning~

===========

Swallows return...

The swallow, bonny birdie, comes sharp twittering o’er the sea,
And gladly is her carol heard for the sunny days to be;
She shares not with us wintry glooms, but yet, no faithless thing,
She hunts the summer o’er the earth with wearied little wing.

~ Thomas Aird  ~

A couple of days ago I saw the first swallow of the year, wheeling and darting across the sky above the orchard, and I felt thrilled at this happy portent of summer!  It reminded me that I made some pictures of swallows and their young at the end of last summer some of which are now in my area of the Getty Images library.  

I don't think I shared these pictures with you at the time, so here they are now....  more wildlife work than art but I just wanted to share them with you. 

Your Feet

Grass Beneath My Feet by Jo Bradford ... When I cannot look at your face  I look at your feet.......I love your feet only because they walked upon the earth and upon the wind and upon the waters until they found me. ...Excerpt lines from Your Feet ~ Pablo Neruda...  Well, it has been a few weeks since I last shared some Pablo with you :)   xoxo

the quiet world

Late Night Blues by Jo Bradford

...

The Quiet World

.
In an effort to get people to look

into each other's eyes more,

and also to appease the mutes,

the government has decided

to allot each person exactly one hundred

and sixty-seven words, per day.

.

When the phone rings, I put it to my ear

without saying hello. In the restaurant

I point at chicken noodle soup.

I am adjusting well to the new way.

.

Late at night, I call my long distance lover,

proudly say I only used fifty-nine today.

I saved the rest for you.

.

When she doesn't respond,

I know she's used up all her words,

so I slowly whisper I love you

thirty-two and a third times.

After that, we just sit on the line

and listen to each other breathe.

.

~ by Jeffrey McDaniel ~

The Evening Beam that Smiles the Clouds Away

Evening Beam by Jo Bradford

...

“Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life.

The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,

and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.”

~ Lord Byron ~

...

I guess that you may be starting to know me well enough by now, that you will know that I am an incurable romantic and arduous fan of Byrons words.

A night of dark intent

Nature has many ways of reminding us how small we are in the grand scheme of things. It has been a stormy week here, with tremendous thunderstorms, high winds, rain, hail and big seas.

...

...

The shattered water made a misty din.

Great waves looked over others coming in,

And thought of doing something to the shore

That water never did to land before.

The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,

Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.

You could not tell, and yet it looked as if

The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,

The cliff in being backed by continent;

It looked as if a night of dark intent

Was coming, and not only a night, an age.

Someone had better be prepared for rage.

There would be more than ocean-water broken

Before God's last 'Put out the Light' was spoken.

...

~ Once By The Pacific by Robert Frost

A crystal veil

Crystalline by Jo Bradford

...

The Snow

It sifts from leaden sieves,

It powders all the wood,

It fills with alabaster wool

The wrinkles of the road.

It makes an even face

Of mountain and of plain,-

-Unbroken forehead from the east

Unto the east again.

It reaches to the fence,

It wraps it, rail by rail,

Till it is lost in fleeces;

It flings a crystal veil.

On stump and stack and stem,-

-The summer's empty room,

Acres of seams where harvests were,

Recordless, but for them.

It ruffles wrist of posts,

As ankles of a queen,-

- Then still its artisans like ghosts,

Denying they have been.

~~By Emily Dickinson~~

Lighthouse Lane

Lighthouse Lane by Jo Bradford

"Leaves of Grass"

I stand as on some mighty eagle’s beak,

Eastward the sea absorbing, viewing,

(nothing but sea and sky,)

The tossing waves, the foam,

the ships in the distance,

The wild unrest, the snowy, curling caps -

-that inbound urge and urge of waves,

Seeking the shores forever.

··· Walt Whitman ···

© All contributed content, all rights reserved

Blow blow thou winter wind

Windswept by Jo Bradford

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember'd not.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.

~ William Shakespeare

© All contributed content, all rights reserved

Sea of Dreams

Sea of Dreams by Jo Bradford

Like summer waves on sands of snow,

Soft ringlets clasp her neck and brow,

And wandering breezes kiss away

A threaded light of glimmering spray,

That drifts and floats and softly flies

In a golden mist about her eyes.

"The Sea Maiden"

Poetic musings by Dowell O'Reilly

(1865 - 1914)

A Thing Of Beauty

A Thing of Beauty by Jo Bradford

...
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever
Its lovliness increases, it will never
Pass into nothingness, but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing..."
...
Excerpt from "A Thing of Beauty" by John Keats

Forbidden Fruit

Forbidden Fruit by Jo Bradford

To satisfie the sharp desire I had

Of tasting those fair Apples, I resolv'd

Not to deferr; hunger and thirst at once,

Powerful perswaders, quick'nd at the scent

Of that alluring fruit, urg'd me so keene.

(Satan tempting Eve)

Milton ~ Paradise Lost (9.584-588)