SMOKE in the SKIES...

WHAT THE THUNDER SAID(excerpts) by T.S. ELIOT(1888-1965)

Here is no water but only rock

Rock and no water and the sandy road

The road winding above among the mountains

Which are mountains of rock without water

If there were water we should stop and drink

Amongst the rock on cannot stop or think

Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand

If there were only water amongst the rock

There is not even silence in the mountains

                       

But dry sterile thunder 

  

...without rain

And no rock...

if there were rock and also water.

And water a spring a pool among the rock

Not the cicada

and dry grass singing

but the sound of water 

over a rock...

Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees

Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop

But there is NO water...

Photographs 2026

 

AUGUST DAYS...

AUGUST by Jean Blewett (1862-1934) Canadian writer and poet. Her first novel was  "Out of the Depths" . She won 600$ in 1896 from the Chicago Times Herald for her poem "Spring"

God in his own right hand

doth take each day

Each sun-filled day

Each rare and radiant night,

And drop it softly....

On the earth

and say:

"Touch earth with Heaven's own beauty and delight..."

Earth to the 20th Century....

"You cannot take from out my heart the growing, The green sweet growing,

and vivid thrill. You should be old. 

Not glowing with youth and all youth's strength and beauty still"

                          - Jean Blewett

Photographs 2026

 

SMOKY HAZE...

SMOKE by Henry David Thoreau ( 1817-1862) From his book "Walden" published in 1843. Thoreau was an American naturalist and author.

Light winged Smoke! Icarian bird

Melting your pinions in your upward flight;

Lark without song, and messenger of dawn

Circling above the hamlets as your nest;

Or else, departing dream, and shadowy form

Of midnight vision, gathering up your skirts;

By night star-veiling, and by day

Darkening the light...

and blotting out the sun;

Go  thou...

my incense

Upward from this hearth,

And ask the gods to pardon this clear flame.

Photographs 2026

 

MT. WASHINGTON RANGE

For the first time, a full view of Mt. Washington range from Campbell River,B.C. and looking south.

"You are not in the mountains. The Mountains are in you..."

                                                                                                                  -John Muir

"Mountains know secrets we need to learn..." -Tyler Knott

"In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds..." -Robert Green Ingersoll

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. may your mountains rise into and above the clouds..." -Edward Abbey

"And into the mountains I must go, to lose my mind and find my soul..." - John Muir

“May your dreams be larger than mountains and may you have the courage to scale their summits.” - Harley King

“Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.” -Kahlil Gabran

44. “Although I deeply love other wild landscapes, it is only mountains that beckon me with that sort of painful magnetic pull to walk deeper and deeper into their beauty.” – Victoria Erikson

Photographs 2026