Thursday, December 18, 2008

Winter Wonderland


Looks like Jack Frost enjoys spending a little of his Christmas break in Los Angeles. After this week's storms drenched the foothills and valley, the clouds parted to reveal Winter: Southern California style. Each year I marvel at the first appearance of snow. Every hazy summer loses the mountains in a veil of smog. But in December, they emerge with holiday icing. Just in time for the solstice.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Moonlight bends...

Here, the blurry, blinding moon, captured by my camera just now -- a long exposure on the ledge of my bathroom window. That velvet sky! Those lacy trees!

Everything reminds me of a poem. Here's the one this image brings:

Moonlight bends over the black silence,
Making it bloom to wild-flowers of sound
That only green things can hear.
A wind sprawls over an orchard,
Frightening its silent litany to sound.
A thread of star-light has fallen to this tree
And curls among its leaves, tangling them to silence. . . .
Standing amidst these things,
Beloved,We feel the words our hearts cannot form.

--Maxwell Bodenheim