Wordless Wednesday…mooning over the mountains

One Word Sunday…night

for One Word Sunday

Wordless Wednesday….lassoing the moon

Lens Artists Photo Challenge: Soft…Moon over the Bighorns

Some nights are more spectacular than others, this being one of them. I did take some shots with the Nikon, but I thought this iPhone photo came out rather well, too. The colors were just like this.

for Lens Artists Photo Challenge: Soft

On the nighttime road

Due to a late start and early sunset, we drove most of the way Wednesday in the dark.  The moon was spectacular.  This iPhone photo taken from the care doesn’t begin to do it justice, but I thought it didn’t turn out too badly.  It’s also one of my first photos attempting to use Hipstamatic.

Cee’s Black and White Challenge: “The moon was a ghostly galleon…”

The orange Childcraft books we owned when I was a child (some volumes of which I still own) had several volumes of poetry.  One of my favorite poems, then and now, was Alfred Noyes’ “The Highwayman” (the poem follows the photo.)  The opening verse contains the line, “The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon stormy seas.”  That phrase came to mind when I saw this photo that I took from a dark room at night.  The abstract of the moon, naturally B&W, came about because my hands couldn’t hold the camera still when the shutter took so long to close.  Fortunately, I liked the way it turned out and since Cee’s allowing us to choose our own theme for her Black and White Challenge this week, I offer it for your viewing pleasure!

Phoneography and Non-SLR Digital Photo Challenge: Challenger’s Choice…moon over the Big Horns

For the Challenger’s Choice this month, I decided to try night photography.  I don’t have nearly as many night shots as daytime ones, partly because I’m awake and taking photos more often during the day and partly because I find that the iPhone tends to overcompensate for the dark, lightening the photo too much.  It may well be that I just don’t know how to work around this, but at any rate, while we were on vacation not long ago, I got a shot that, with a little bit of tweaking (NOT twerking!!), I like it and I hope you do, too.  As for “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod”, I love this poem and read it to our girls often when they were growing up.

“The moon is friend for the lonesome to talk to.”
~Carl Sandburg

The moon is a loyal companion.
It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human.
Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections.
~Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
~Eugene Field

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe —
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.
“Where are you going, and what do you wish?”
The old moon asked the three.
“We have come to fish for the herring fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we!”
Said Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe,
And the wind that sped them all night long
Ruffled the waves of dew.
The little stars were the herring fish
That lived in that beautiful sea —
“Now cast your nets wherever you wish —
Never afeard are we”;
So cried the stars to the fishermen three:
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

All night long their nets they threw
To the stars in the twinkling foam —
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
Bringing the fishermen home;
‘Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed
As if it could not be,
And some folks thought ’twas a dream they’d dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea —
But I shall name you the fishermen three:
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one’s trundle-bed.
So shut your eyes while mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

Sunset–moonrise…cosmic balancing act

When I saw the sunset on the way back tonight, I had to find a place to pull (safely) off the highway and take a picture!  I drove on, but as the sun set, the moon rose in a cosmic balancing act on the opposite side.  Once again, I had to pull off, but the location wasn’t the best and the iPad couldn’t get a shot that did the moon justice.

Stardancers

Stardancers.
Starlit darkness
graceful spirals
long slow leaps
cool clean entwinings
intergalactic plants sway in breaths of space air
prelude
       reaching, closing, withdrawing
       watching.
       waiting.
       wanting.
       stretching, bending, slowly flexing
approach
       but gently
       two directions towards one point
       fields of forces
                       vibrate
       inexorable pull without gravity
       gyrate slowly
       face to face, turn, look back
       roll, twist, bend
       circling
touch
       feather light
       holds, lifts
       moonlit, sunlit
       cool, smooth, alive
       welling joy
                 caress
moonbeam touches
       darting, drifting
       everywhere
moth-wing brushes
shimmer of silver
                cool blue
                velvet black
                emerald green
                deepest ruby
                pure ivory
colors alive
       dancing, spinning free
       unfettered
       gentle power
       glorious light
       growing, expanding, living, breathing
       reaching out to
                     touch
                     stardancers
Music
Slithering down my nerves, to dendrites,
         across synapses
with gentle heat
calling to muscles
                 “relax”
massaging fingers of sound on brain cells
touches down neck
                gentle
reaching, probing
vibrating.

Grow heavy.
Be lightness
Leave the body and travel elsewhere
remembered mysteries
exploring pathways
hand in hand with feelings
newness, growth, expansion

limitless

body dances as it rests
beyond all exteriors
permeates all interiors
passes frontiers

Regenerates.
Is alive again.

Night time haiku