I have dreams of travel....I fantasize about going to Japan one day.....staying in a traditional hotel...with the rice paper walls...where everything is minimalist...one beautiful painting, one cherry blossom in a simple vase...taking off my shoes, slipping into a kimono....looking out into a garden..watching mist rise from the lotus filled pond.... colorful lanterns swaying softly...through the open door, the delicately haunting melody from the stringed koto.
I dream of walking in the footsteps of my favorite haiku poets, long gone....The shrines they visited, the mountains they gazed on...They used to take cherry blossom and moon watching journeys....and take turns writing poetry on the spot about the beauty....It is like an antique version of a photograph....only they captured the beauty with words....There is an old story about one of the poets (Chinese rather than Japanese, I think Li Po) who fell out of his boat trying to grab the moon...
I also have dreams of going to Maine....lighthouses and historic captain's houses, beautiful bays with little boats lined up in the golden sunset...gently rocking....I have been to Maine and long to return... I think of poets from Maine as well....the poets are our eyes and our ears....they capture perfectly the emotion of untold beauty.....of places we may never set eyes on....
Well, all this is about....me getting ready to travel...not so glamorous a destination...but hopefully one that will give me a wealth of new material for my artwork..and I am excited about it...I have a new camera and a new backpack to carry my camera in on the plane...I am trying to locate costumes and models and studio space, etc.....but a lot will be simple...in nature as well....who knows what I will come back with? Not even me!!!
My husband is staying behind to feed the animals!!!! To "Baby sit the cats" as he puts it...and the horses, ducks and peacocks....He is a little disgruntled by his photographer wife's ramblings. But, he gets so bored...while I shoot...and shoot and shoot.....It's better this way...
Soon, we will have more baby chicks. The osprey have returned to build their nests.. This will be their 3rd year here..they keep the hawks away..which we like..because of all our chickens, etc. Today I saw a small mink swimming and fishing in the pond out front..It's not as glamorous as it sounds....but it is definitely Nature!!! There is hay, dust, dirt mud everywhere, continually....just to keep you from feeling jealous!!!
I will be gone for several weeks...and when I return you will see a new post....with new stories, adventures, photos....maybe even a haiku!!!
Hazy moonlight!
Someone is standing
among the pear trees.
Spring is going,
we cannot know where to--
the anchored boat.
(both from Haiku Master Buson, 1700s Japan)
