Poetry and Photos — An Icicle Hangs (#WalkMyWorld)

With the cold and snow we’ve had some days off school lately, which means that I have a bit more time to write and take some photographs.  Here’s a couple photos from yesterday’s AM trip to gather wood for the wood stove and ash pail emptying.

I’m happy to be trying to tell some kind of story about my daily world for the #WalkMyWorld project. It’s been fun to see what others do and it’s been great to make it one of my “jobs” to slow down enough to see where I’m placing my feet on this journey. On a related note, I’ve also taken a tentative step into the wonderful world that is the National Writing Project iAnthology. So far, that has extended only as far as the Photo Fridays Challenge.

Here are some photos from yesterday morning. The poem these images inspired follows them.

This strange structure was formed by sheets of snow sliding partway off the roof, then refreezing and melting over a series of very cold, but sunny, days.

This strange structure was formed by sheets of snow sliding partway off the roof, then refreezing and melting over a series of very cold, but sunny, days.

I was struck by how the light tails down the length of the icicle far into the darkness.

I was struck by how the light tails down the length of the icicle far into the darkness.

 

An Icicle Hangs

An icicle hangs from the eaves,
a witness this silent morning
to the amber dawn
gathered in its glassy surface,
a luminescent vessel contains
the tentative warmth
of this new day.

What luck to have glanced

from the near chore
of gathering firewood
to catch amidst the far dark
this flash of liquid light,
frozen for a moment,
caught between solid
earth and an opening sky.

–Steve Peterson, 2014

 

 

12 thoughts on “Poetry and Photos — An Icicle Hangs (#WalkMyWorld)

  1. Oh, my! Breathtaking!

    I love “the near chore” and the “far dark” and the liquid, solid and opening sky.

    Sigh.

    Just gorgeous!

    • Your photography has inspired me to look more closely at my world, too! I love your monthly mosaics, which contain so much of your poet-self, too, I think.

      I was a little worried about all the adjectives in this poem, and I tried to take them out, but…they kept inserting themselves in subsequent drafts.

      Thanks for stopping by!

  2. Steve, I agree with Mary Lee- BREATHTAKING!

    An icicle hangs from the eaves,
    a witness this silent morning
    to the amber dawn
    this flash of liquid light,
    frozen for a moment,
    caught between solid
    earth and an opening sky.
    I could have pointed to the whole poem.
    Inspiration for us and you…
    A perfect companion piece!
    I love the darkness in the icicles

    • Oh, Bonnie! Thank you so much for visiting. I haven’t told you how much I have enjoyed my brief visit to the NWP iAnthology. I’ve just started to explore it; the place you and Kevin have nailed together is a fine place to play. A few years ago, when I took two NWP Summer Institutes through the IWP, the eAnthology was a huge boost to my own writing (and subsequent teaching.) Thanks for (re)creating a site like it outside the Summer Institute.

      Ah, the darkness in the ice. There’s metaphors in them thar icicles! 🙂

  3. Thank you sharing the words&image blend. The penetration of light into dark, especially the stripes, provokes reflection on the way in. We can’t expect to get it all “right,” but must welcome iterations with striped results, the greys and darker tones as important as the sunny times.

    • Joseph,
      Thank you so much for visiting. I love the way you describe the struggle, we “must welcome iterations with striped results…” Yes, yes, and yes! Whether this struggle be to produce a good photo, a poem with fewer adjectives, or a life lived well, it really is important to look more closely at “gray” to see the presence of bands of dark and light. Thanks for that image! 🙂

  4. Hi Steve,

    I’m not sure what I love most…your image of the icicle or the words that evoke a complexity even beyond the photo! For someone who truly never experiences the amazing qualities of ice, I love living vicariously through your words and images. This piece (words and images) is truly breathtaking! Thanks so much for sharing this bit of “liquid light.”

    Kim

    • Kim,
      Thank you so much for the encouragement! We really do live in different world. Judging by the delightful photos you’ve posted on the iAnthology site, you must live somewhere warm! Thank you, too, for coordinating the Photo Fridays 2.0. It looks like a very cool community you have been able to create there! Thanks for being so welcoming to newcomers.

  5. (Inspired by your poem, and the phrase of “liquid light”)

    this flash of liquid light gathers
    in my fingertips as
    i close my first to hold it close
    before it goes and melts
    and all i will be left with are
    some hazy memories
    of cold days gathering.

    — Kevin

    • Kevin,
      What a gift, this poem! Thank you, thank you! Yes, the ‘cold days gathering’ can crowd out the beauty because, if for no other reason, the beauty ‘goes and melts’ on us. Maybe one of the gifts photography gives us (and words, too, in the form of a poem?) is a kind of insulation that allows us to hold those moments a little bit longer, ‘to hold it close’, to examine them, to let them sink in a bit deeper than they would otherwise?

  6. Steve,
    So glad to find your blog again. Thought I had subscribed! Now I have some catching up to do. Your photos and poetry are stunning. I am awed by the words you find to capture the photos they accompany. While I agree with Bonnie, what hit me most was “this flash of liquid light”

    Thank you so much.

    • Oh, Julieanne! Thank you so much for the compliment, and from such a good writer as yourself…

      I have your blog linked in my (new) Feedly reader and check it regularly. I don’t offer as many comments as I might. I guess, as a big ol’ guy, I’m conscious about taking up too much space. (It’s sort of an introvert thing, I guess…sigh.) At any rate, I’ve loved your Celebration posts and your thinking about the writers who don’t fit in to the program so well. I’ve loved the teaching moves you’ve done to bring them in and to help them feel comfortable in that classroom space. And, of course, your pieces are always so well written; they are a joy to read!

      The book? 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *