Then there is my camera.
It says, where you point my lens, is where I will focus.
It says, where you direct your eyes, is where your attention goes.
Like hunting for red. If you move around in the world looking for red, you will find it. (Go here to do a small experiment.)
And there are poems.
I live in the midst of Karin Boye’s words - Yes, Of Course It Hurts.
She talks about spring, about buds. About how it hurts when buds are breaking. For -
Why else would the springtime falter?
Why would all our ardent longing
bind itself in frozen, bitter pallor?
After all, the bud was covered all the winter.
What new thing is it that bursts and wears?
I have walked some paths this spring, pointing my lens at buds bursting. Those outside of me. And those inside.
Karin Boye - Yes, Of Course It Hurts, from For the Tree’s Sake (1935)
Translation by David McDuff
Photos © Grete S. Kempton
I love the poem by Karin Boye. Thank you for introducing me to her poetry. Finding a new poet is like discovering a new species of flower. :-) Your photos are beautiful. May your buds produce magnificent poems and flowers. Blessings!
ReplyDeletei read your post this morning and carried it with me. i tried once again to not follow my 'red' brain.
ReplyDeletewhat makes us follow 'our' red brain, makes us only consider number, position etc., instead another colour right beside the red?
"I have walked some paths this spring, pointing my lens at buds bursting. Those outside of me. And those inside.",
are wonderful lines.
~robert.
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ReplyDeleteMarion -
ReplyDeleteThe Swedish poet Karin Boye is very well known here in Scandinavia. I was happy to find this poem in translation, as it is among my favorites. I learned it by heart some years ago, BUT as memory goes (at least mine!) I was happy to revisit now, and then write about it.
To find new poems or poets is, like you say, like discovering a new species of flower. Over at your garden, there is always springtime!
Robert -
Yes, that RED brain..... :-)
Grete
does it sound too large to say that i have burst? is that too much?
ReplyDeletewell, i have. i have burst and it is rather like a boil. there is the pain and there is the release. there is the new growth. I like this new to me poet very much.
i do hope this is not the last big burst of my life. i do hope that i can manage to be strong enough to weather these changes of season.
xo
erin
Erin -
ReplyDeleteI like that. Your spring. And your acceptance of the dual qualities of change. Knowing everything turns, turns, turns, the seasons never ending. You inspire me.
Grete