LJI Second Chance: April Shade

[alycewilson]

This is my entry for LJ Idol's Second Chance competition (https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org) for eliminated contestants to earn a spot back in the competition. The topic this week is "Shade." I'll update when there is a voting link.

APRIL SHADE

Spring sun shadows through bare branches
fascinate me. Again and again, I feel
compelled to photograph the way those crooked
lines stretch across the grass, dark mirrors. Blackness
crisscrosses latent green, undulates.
The grass awash in ripples, dappled grays and fading
charcoal. Glimpsed from a distance, these lines mimic
root systems stretching underneath: that two-brushed
flare of living trees, stretching above and below.

At that moment, when the world lies
dormant, I feel more sharply
the life that suffuses.

---

ETA: As promised, here is the link to the poll: https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1030373.html. Four people will be eliminated from Second Chance this week!

Comments

[bsgsix]

I love how you took "show, don't tell" to a very different level here - not only with the picture, which is lovely, but with the words you chose. The last lines of "...when the world lies dormant, I feel more sharply the life that suffuses" is perfect for your main theme and photo. Wonderfully written.

[alycewilson]

Thank you! That truly is what I was trying to convey with the rest of it: how the movement and beauty of those tree shadows always seem so full of life to me. I've tried shooting video, too, but so far haven't shot a video that perfectly captures the experience.

Also, I guess for a very long time, I have always seen beauty in places where others might see desolation. For example, I adore abandoned buildings, and while I know better than to explore them, I like to photograph them from outside.

[bsgsix]

I think that photos capture things better than videos do so many times. Something about video feels unreal, like a life on repeat. I don't even like watching old videos of myself before the brain injury: I don't seem like myself. But photographs? They seem far more tangible, alive, vivid. They play on our dark and light sides. They capture the life - or lack thereof - in our eyes. And you're right in that there is beauty in desolation. I see it, too. That kind of beauty often seems more - real, if that makes sense.

[adoptedwriter]

This is so lovely and rich in description.

[alycewilson]

Thank you! I was originally going to go with prose, but then I reread it and thought it needed to be a poem.

[tonithegreat]

The photo fits the prompt so perfectly! And I’m glad you went with a poem. Prose might have worked too, but I enjoyed your poem.

[alycewilson]

Thanks! I'm glad. It's always nice when people who write poetry have nice things to say.

If I'd gone with prose, I probably would have expanded more on the whole idea of beauty in the desolate, but I felt this needed to be spare.

[itsjust_c]

It's wonderfully descriptive without the photo, but your photography skills are stunning and therefore add even more to this.

[alycewilson]

Thank you! That's great to hear. My mom was an artist, but I can't paint for I pick up a camera or a pen.

[dmousey]

I absolutely love this! The imagery! Winter's trees would take pride in having stirred someone's soul to such inspiration..

[static_abyss]

I love all the photographs you included in your past entries. This one especially is very evocative and made the words in your poem resonate strongly with me. Qell done!

[sonreir]

I really, really love this. Your poetry is always so great!

[tjoel2]

Love how you added the image with the piece! :)

[favoritebean_writes]

I love this, and I love the accompanying photograph. Did you take the photo?

[alycewilson]

Yes, I did! That was when my son was playing with his cousins on a playground near the elementary school in my sister's neighborhood. Here's another shot taken near the same time, of my niece and my son, with the tree in the background. If you click on it, you can see it larger on Flickr.

[kehlen.livejournal.com]

This is an amazing picture. The shade looks to me like the tree is running fast toward summer and another season of life, growth and bearing fruit.

[murielle]

"...these lines mimic
root systems stretching underneath:..."

Yes!

Trees, throughout all their seasons are so beautiful! (I'm a big fan!)

Well, done!

[rayaso]

This is such a concise, evocative poem, and the picture is wonderful. Your poem matches it beautifully.

[halfshellvenus]

Nice picture-- and I like that you highlighted the mirror effect of it.

that two-brushed
flare of living trees, stretching above and below.
It is! We just don't often think of it that way, but the picture offers the means to see it clearly.

[reidharriscooper]

I feel the starkness that gives life and love.