gonefishinstories

Splendor



William Carlos Williams said that poets write for a single reason-to give witness to splendor.

I seek the intensity of light and fleeting time, where seconds matter, to record a memory, the imagination of patterns and form, and colors that show the beauty of the geography where I live and "to give witness to splendor."



David Gallipoli 

Heart of Light 

A snow day literally and figurately falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder.


-Susan Orlean  

"The decision as to when to photograph, the actual click of the shutter, is partly controlled from the outside, by the flow of life, but it also comes from the mind and the heart of the artist. The photograph is his vision of the world and expresses, however subtly, his values and convictions." 


~Paul Strand

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious."


—Heraclitus

A Family 


"Beauty in art is truth bathed in an impression received from nature. I am struck upon seeing a certain place. While I strive for a conscientious imitation, I yet never for an instant lose the emotion that has taken hold of me. Reality is one part of art; feeling completes it . . . Before any site and any object, abandon yourself to your first impression. If you have really been touched, you will convey to others the sincerity of your emotion."


—Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Splendor

The blonde and brown fur of adult Elk blend
with the brown mountainside in the canyon
where young Elk rest
under the nut-brown ponderosas
touched briefly by the kiss of the sun

A lone turkey feather lies on
a small patch of green
the scent of thaw is in the air
the forest floor being
nourished by moisture
announcing Spring is here

Moisture trickles to the lower Salmon River
now free of ice, water the color of Spanish olives,
where fish with a broad-brushed stroke of red
swim below the surface
and anglers in boats move downstream,
trying to coax a few to bend their rods

The river is calm now,
will the snowmelt be orderly
or rage and flood

I sit and watch as the sun warms me
shedding a layer of my winter uniform
watching Elk in the distance who
have been grazing these
canyon slopes
for thousands of years
the weather, wind, and light
carving a landscape sculpture
that will never be finished 

all is well in these moments
of splendor.


David Gallipoli 
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