February Slump

I'd do just about anything for love...except move to Alaska. And lately, Virginia has felt a little bit like Alaska with its unusually brutal temperatures and excessive snow flakes! I've just about had enough...the days are long and frigid. The landscape is so bleak, which matches my state of mind this past week. It's so cold that I rarely go outside because my body wants to hibernate. I experience this winter slump every year at this time - my creativity goes out the window (along with my motivation).

We had our biggest snow yet on Thursday into Friday, and I finally wandered outside the next day to take a few photos in my back yard. The landscape was very symbolic of my February state of mind: thoughts that cast long shadows, and creativity as stark as the snow...a white, empty space. However, at least the sun was shining! That was a welcome change from the gray, cloudy days we'd been having.

Spring will be here soon, and as always, my enthusiasm will return with the flowers! I can't wait...thanks for stopping by. I'm linking up with Kathy's Song-ography today - her song theme is "I'd Do Anything For Love..."

And winter sheds its grief in snow… ~Emily Brontë

Heart Tender

HEART TENDER

My muse is a heart hunter, her bow arched readily,
her arrow point dabbed with a gossamer glint
the color of spirit.
I am her target and, emboldened with time,
I confront her with soul-fire and fear-ashes,
stomach knots and eye-stars.

Sky and trees are tossed by the air,
green-shuffled and blue-shifted in a windblown vertigo,
the sunset on my neck-nape.
I spy, with delight,
ten thousand wren-wings of a migrating flock,
their nerves fraught with dusk-twitter.
Twilight nestles against slumbering petals,
their flower-souls folded in and dreaming.

I wave my white handkerchief.
Seizing her moment, my muse bends an arrow back
and releases, our eyes locked.
My ears hear the whistling sound the arrow makes
as it soars through the air to my lung-cage,
hitting its target dead center, heart-tender.

© Sherri Brannon 2014

I find that poetry comes to me easier in the wintertime...there's less distraction, less color, less external activities. I'm more contemplative, quieter...there's a stillness present that isn't there in the bustle of spring, summer, or fall. This is a poem I've been working on for the last couple of weeks. I never know when I'm going to get "hit" with the sudden need to write. It was fun to think of my muse as a hunter with her bow and arrow.

My photo was edited using Radlab - I like the dreamy effect I was able to get. And through the wonders of Photoshop, I was able to add a flock of birds by finding an image at Flickr Creative Commons and adding it in as a separate layer.

Thank you for stopping by!

It just happens to be the way that I’m made. I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them. ~Haruki Murakami

Lines and Curves

Remember, a line cannot exist alone; it always brings a companion along. Do remember that one line does nothing; it is only in relation to another that it creates a volume. ~Henri Matisse

Bonnie's theme for Photo Art Friday this month is "geometric/graphic/angular". I knew right away I wanted to use a photo of Spaceship Earth at Epcot. It's probably the most identifiable structure at this park...I love all its lines and angles, which is odd considering it's a round ball! I added a couple of layers, including Bonnie's "Painterly Texture", and put the image through Radlab several times to affect the tones.

Disney World: Magic Kingdom

Kathy's song this week on Song-ography is "I Would Walk 500 Miles". It was a perfect theme for finally posting some of my Disney World photos...I can guarantee you that when you visit Disney World, you will feel as if you've walked 500 miles! It's so enormous and there are four different parks to cover if you so desire. My feet have never been so tired.

I've decided to break my photos down by park, so today I'm sharing some favorites from our day at Magic Kingdom. It was very overcast that day, so I'm not real thrilled with the sky in some of these photos. It was hard for them not to look washed out...there's likely a clever way to fix this in Photoshop, but my expertise is lacking in that area.

Also, as luck would have it, the day we visited the Magic Kingdom they had a crane attached to Cinderella's castle while removing the last of the Christmas decorations. If you look closely in the second image above, you can see the yellow "cage" dangling towards the top of the castle..the workers were inside the cage removing lights from the turrets. The crane ruined the possibility of getting a gorgeous, full-view photo of the castle from a distance...bummer! However, I was very thrilled to see the new Beauty and the Beast castle (the purplish one) - it was so pretty!

Despite my photography complaints, we had so much fun at Disney World - it's truly a magical place!

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope to share some photos of Disney World/Hollywood Studios soon.