Poetry and Photography

[Ivo_B]

In recent topics the relation between Poetry and Photography was quoted and discussed.
Without to elaborate to much on the validness of the statement, I thought it would be nice if we try to illustrate poetry, or lyrics with suitable pictures.

I'll try to start, hope the romantic shouls of Lula will follow.

I like the older work of Antony and the Johnsons a lot. Specially one particular for sentimental reasons:

https://youtu.be/LyMGEq82uL4

Antony and the Johnsons - Hope There's Someone

Hope there's someone who'll take care of me
When I die
Will I go?

Hope there's someone who'll set my heart free
Nice to hold
When I'm tired

There's a ghost on the horizon
When I go to bed
How can I fall asleep at night?
How will I rest my head?

Oh I'm scared of the middle place
Between light and nowhere
I don't want to be the one
Left in there
Left in there

There's a man on the horizon
Wish that I'd go to bed
If I fall to his feet tonight
Will allow rest my head

So he's hoping I will not drown
Or paralyze in light
And godsend I don't want to go
To the seal's watershed

Hope there's someone who'll take care of me
When I die
Will I go?

Hope there's someone who'll set my heart free
Nice to hold
When I'm tired

[JNB_Rare]

Oceanography

Fleeting compositions,
Ephemeral designs.
With each new tide,
With each new lap of a wave,
The sea draws anew,
On a canvas of sand.

Another wave, another scene,
Vanishes into the receding foam.
Can I capture those graceful lines,
That perfect pebble placement?
The sea mocks me,
As I try to stop time.

[JNB_Rare]

All The Diamonds In The World
(Bruce Cockburn)

All the diamonds in this world
That mean anything to me
Are conjured up by wind and sunlight
Sparkling on the sea

I ran aground in a harbour town
Lost the taste for being free
Thank God He sent some gull-chased ship
To carry me to sea

Two thousand years and half a world away
Dying trees still grow greener when you pray

Silver scales flash bright and fade
In reeds along the shore
Like a pearl in sea of liquid jade
His ship comes shining
Like a crystal swan in a sky of suns
His ship comes shining

[Ivophoto]

Beautiful, JNB.

[32BT]

Beautiful, JNB.

+1,

well done, good representation.

[Telecaster]

All The Diamonds In The World
(Bruce Cockburn)

Great tune, introduced to me long ago by my Canadian cousin Sean. Saw Cockburn in 1992 at the tiny Gem Theater in Detroit. Just superb!

-Dave-

[JNB_Rare]

This one really requires the music to support the lyrics, so I'll provide a Youtube link: Walk on the Sand. I remember buying this album on my first ever visit to NYC in 1969. The image I've shown before, but this song is what plays in my head at times like the one pictured.

Walk on the Sand
(Ars Nova – Wyatt Day)

Walk on the sand, and smell the sea
Wishing you were here with me
Spring comes again, and the memory
Wishing you were here with me

There is magic in the summertime
But the winters of our lives
Can be so rare
And the spring will bring
The memory back again
Of all the errors that we made
All the happiness that we feel

Time flows along, and it carries me
As it carries you my love
You're where you are, and here am I
Wishing you were here with me

There is magic in the summertime
But the winters of our lives
Can be so rare
And the spring will bring
The memory back again
Of all the errors that we made
All the happiness that we feel

...

[Rob C]

Lyrics?

[LesPalenik]

The Spell Of Yukon

[Ivophoto]

Lyrics?

Rob, Meanwhile I’m a fan of your work. Up to now, and for the period I follow Lula, you didn’t show less that top class work!

[Rob C]

Rob, Meanwhile I’m a fan of your work. Up to now, and for the period I follow Lula, you didn’t show less that top class work!

Thank you very much Ivo; I just wish that work was still around for me to do.

That said, I guess that, realistically, I only have myself to blame for breaking away from the coalface in favour of those lotus-eating years mooching around the Med with my better half, living like characters in a novel and, like many of them, avoiding all thoughts of tomorrow. But at least, for as long as she lived, we had it all. Which ain't too bad a score!

And I still have some of the trannies!

;-)

P.S.

And to my horror, I realise that I didn't even type Encre correctly! Sheesh!

[Ivo_B]

Serge Reggiani - Sarah

https://youtu.be/k57Zbo_mnWY

La femme qui est dans mon lit n'a plus vingt ans depuis longtemps
Les yeux cernés par les années, par les amours au jour le jour
La bouche usée par les baisers trop souvent, mais trop mal donnés
Le teint blafard malgré le fard plus pâle qu'une tache de lune

La femme qui est dans mon lit n'a plus vingt ans depuis longtemps
Les seins si lourds de trop d'amour ne portent pas le nom d'appas
Le corps lassé, trop caressé, trop souvent, mais trop mal aimé
Le dos vouté semble porter des souvenirs qu'elle a dû fuir

La femme qui est dans mon lit n'a plus vingt ans depuis longtemps
Ne riez pas, n'y touchez pas, gardez vos larmes et vos sarcasmes
Lorsque la nuit nous réunit, son corps, ses mains s'offrent aux miens
Et c'est son cœur couvert de pleurs et de blessures qui me rassure.

[Rob C]

Serge Reggiani - Sarah

https://youtu.be/k57Zbo_mnWY

La femme qui est dans mon lit n'a plus vingt ans depuis longtemps
Les yeux cernés par les années, par les amours au jour le jour
La bouche usée par les baisers trop souvent, mais trop mal donnés
Le teint blafard malgré le fard plus pâle qu'une tache de lune

La femme qui est dans mon lit n'a plus vingt ans depuis longtemps
Les seins si lourds de trop d'amour ne portent pas le nom d'appas
Le corps lassé, trop caressé, trop souvent, mais trop mal aimé
Le dos vouté semble porter des souvenirs qu'elle a dû fuir

La femme qui est dans mon lit n'a plus vingt ans depuis longtemps
Ne riez pas, n'y touchez pas, gardez vos larmes et vos sarcasmes
Lorsque la nuit nous réunit, son corps, ses mains s'offrent aux miens
Et c'est son cœur couvert de pleurs et de blessures qui me rassure.

So beautiful and so real; love grows finer as it ages: I know.

Rob

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... And to my horror, I realise that I didn't even type Encre correctly! Sheesh!

Or that “having trannies” got a whole new meaning in the meantime

[RSL]

http://www.russ-lewis.com/essays/acrisisofsoul.html

And in response to Ivo's last post and Rob's heartfelt response:

http://www.russ-lewis.com/Poetry/Poems/FortyYearsLater.html

[Rob C]

http://www.russ-lewis.com/essays/acrisisofsoul.html

And in response to Ivo's last post and Rob's heartfelt response:

http://www.russ-lewis.com/Poetry/Poems/FortyYearsLater.html

Not a lot can follow that, Russ; you've said it all. Autumn's fortunate to have someone who can express it so much better than just "I love you" ever does.

Rob

[OmerV]

From the Robert Lowell poem, Waking Early Sunday Morning

Pity the planet, all joy gone
from this sweet volcanic cone;
peace to our children when they fall
in small war on the heels of small
war – until the end of time
to police the earth, a ghost
orbiting forever lost
in our monotonous sublime.


Park Bench by Omer Claiborne, on Flickr

[Ivophoto]

http://www.russ-lewis.com/essays/acrisisofsoul.html

And in response to Ivo's last post and Rob's heartfelt response:

http://www.russ-lewis.com/Poetry/Poems/FortyYearsLater.html

Beautiful Russ.

You surely have a photo to illustrate?

[Ivophoto]

Not a lot can follow that, Russ; you've said it all. Autumn's fortunate to have someone who can express it so much better than just "I love you" ever does.

Rob

Yep........

[RSL]

Thanks, Rob and Ivo. I started writing serious poetry in 1950 when I was a student at University of Michigan. I also started getting it published. I was nineteen. Here's the first one I ever had published:

http://www.russ-lewis.com/Poetry/Poems/Metamorophosis.html.

My most ambitious poem is one I did after my final Southeast Asia tour at Udon Thani in Thailand. It deals mostly with my first Southeast Asia tour at Ubon Ratchathani, and the laid-back period just before Rolling Thunder, the bombing campaign in North Vietnam, began. I've never sent it out for publication. Web publication is enough.

http://www.russ-lewis.com/Poetry/Poems/Ubon.html

And there are plenty of photographs to go with the SEA stuff:

http://www.russ-lewis.com/asia/index.html