Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Devonian




I collected
your sea spray
on my tongue
warm inland
trilobyte waters
teeming with
fossils
gulping
air-traded air
to gasp
an exquisite
extinction


20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those are magnificent shots ... a great angle and very outer wordly looking. I like the idea of nature being a great recycler of air and other things.

Karen said...

gulping
air - traded air
to gasp
an exquisite
extinction

These are beautiful lines with perfect breaks.

Your birthday gift has certainly abetted your creative nature! The pictures are awesome (and I use that word with its meaning intact).

the walking man said...

Very odd ode to the end of love.

I like it very much but odd none the less Jason.

SzélsőFa said...

The subject on the last photo is so delicate I want to taste it and eat it all :)))

Catherine Vibert said...

I'm so darn jealous of your new lens, I want you to stop torturing me with these amazing shots. Interesting the way you are putting the images in different contexts via the poem. It works!

jaz said...

This is beautiful. Your use of the word "exquisite" is thought provoking. On the one hand, I felt you meant the actual evidence of the major extinction, but on the other hand I sense something deeper, like an objective wonder at the earth's alternating destruction and renewal.

Anil Sawan said...

Jason, did ya take those pics?? they are luvly.. shall i please keep a copy at my desktop. ill not re use it online.

Sarah Hina said...

Something so tender and vulnerable about those photos...awe-inspiring in their openness and trust. Beautiful! :)

I read about a living fossil the other day on a news site. A shark of some sort, still swimming in the murky depths. Those guys are fascinating.

The poem feels like the biggest breath. Combined with the photos, I like to think of an overwhelming inhalation of living memory, rather than the short exhalation of loss.

Aniket Thakkar said...

This is the first instance where I loved your photography more than your writing.

Absolutely Beautiful Pics and likewise words to appreciate them!

Aine said...

an exquisite extinction

There may not be an ultimate purpose, but as they say: tis better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all.

K.Lawson Gilbert said...

Oh, Jason - the pictures are unbelievable. So precise in every detail! This poem ranks as one of my very favorite that you have written. It has a rhythm, a poetic pulse that makes it dynamic in its vibrance. Great word choices move it toward that powerful ending! I really love it!!!

Anonymous said...

Aggie, thank you! I'm going to enjoy really giving the camera workout in nicer weather.

Karen, it's probably not a surprise that I tend to see what I don't like about those pictures rather than what's good about them. ;) But thank you!! I very much agree that this lens will open a whole new type of images for me to share.

Walking Man, odd is quite a compliment. For me, at least. If I can sweep into a thought or topic from a curious direction, I especially like that.

Szelsofa, it does look delicious, doesn't it? :)

Catvibe, ha! I can't promise an end to your torture. In fact, I'm just getting started. These shots would definitely have benefited from stacking techniques, but I was just messing around handheld on a Saturday morning.

Jennifer, moments and memories. The hugeness of life, yet its gossamer, fleeting nature. How the greatest things we can experience might only survive as mere fossils of what they were.

Sawan, thank you regarding the photography! Sure, I'd be happy for you to download them.

Sarah, that's a cool observation. How the flowers become wide open, much like trust, the closer you come. Inhalation of living memory versus the exhalation of loss...yes, the process of the two, and teetering on the fulcrum. Looking forward to what little (or much) will remain.

Aniket, maybe I need to tone down the photography. :) I don't want to lose my street cred as a writer. ;)

Aine, maybe its the embracing of the notion that everything is on the trail to extinction. Yet, we can cheat oblivion. Loss is tempered by those remnants, shells, and footsteps left behind in the hardening mud of time.

Kaye, thanks so much! I really don't fancy myself a skilled poet. A more visceral one perhaps. Knowing your amazing talents in poetry, your praise means a great deal to me. I hope to capture visually (and in language) many more intimate moments in greater clarity that folks usually have the inclination to experience.

Barbara Martin said...

Wonderful photos of delicate flowers that reflect well in your poetry.

Catherine Vibert said...

You know if you do stack em, I want to see what comes up. I happen to like having only these parts in focus, as it really really shows off your massive aperture opening. I want I want I want. Oh, and can you please zoom in on that center stamen thingy? I want to see the pores and speckily things so that they fill the photograph. This last shot is wetting my appetite for wanting to get down to the cellular level.

Anonymous said...

Barbara, thank you! I like when one is born from the other.

Catvibe, you're about the out-of-focus portions being nearly as important as what is in focus. I'm just not totally satisfied with the balance in these. Especially in the second, I wish the depth of field was a little deeper. As for getting right in close, I like your attitude!! Maximizing the ratio like that creates really thin depths of field. Tiny apertures are the name of the game. (BTW, I have to take multiple photos with a tripod in order to stack.)

Catherine Vibert said...

Are you saying that when you get in really close you need a small aperture? Give me an F stop! My wanna be T function is kicking in here. Talk tech to me.

Anonymous said...

Catvibe, an aperture in the twenties at least. Of course, it's always a tough balance. There's only so much aperture you can give away in the light you have. Sometimes stacking is the best answer, because you can keep the background soft while assembling a greater depth of field.

Sarah Laurenson said...

Amazing pics and I love the poetry with them. Awesome job, Jason!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Sarah! I can't wait for spring to pop up more things to photograph.

Vesper said...

Jason, I love this so very, very, very much! It touches things I deeply care for, in your gifted way. The photos too are amazing.