In her poem, Primary Wonder, Denise Levertov writes of the clamor of daily problems receding in the awareness of the quiet mystery of existence. The photographs below speak to that same awareness at a time when each days problems are ready to “jostle for our attention.”
Capturing the progression of the season and a full range of colors, these photographs by Gail Hoffman are an invitation to look closer at the beauty around us, to relish the small things, and embrace variety. Gail captured these images on her daily early morning walks. She wrote about her walks in an earlier post for this series.
The Birth of a Flower
Color Series
Primary Wonder
Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Denise Levertov (1923–1997)
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; cap and bells.
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng’s clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed One, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.
Art in the time of the Corona Virus – We invite the members of the Anawim Arts Community to embrace the vital capacity of art and spirituality to speak to our current situation. The works in this series will be gathered into a special edition of our on-line journal.
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Lovely, vibrant images!
Hafiz, in one of his beautiful poems, says “Start seeing everything as God, but keep it a secret”. The beauty of the flowers shouts out that secret. Each one has its message.
Thank you for the beauty of words and colour