Contemplative Poetry Series - Charles Wright

Every true poem is a spark,
and aspires to the condition 

of the original fire
Arising out of the emptiness.
It is that same emptiness it wants to reignite.
It is that same engendering it 

wants to be re-engendered by.

excerpt from Body and Soul II

   Charles Wright was named America's new Poet Laureate in June. NPR called him a contemplative poet and I would have to agree.

 You can read the NPR article about Wright here...

   I think this excerpt from one of his poems could also refer to our attempts, as contemplative photographers, to render the condition of the original spark.  The spark that drew us into the encounter with what we found in the landscape.  That wonderful moment when heard the whisper and responded.

   Our humble attempt to reveal the experience in photographic form is our manner of contemplative poetry...the poetry of place.  It is what I am trying to do in my project at the pond. Somehow I wish to make visual the poetic undercurrents of that singular place...to tell its story in images.

   I am reminded of the Lewis Hinds quote:

If I could tell the story in words 
I wouldn't have to lug around this camera.

   I will leave the words to masters like Charles Wright...

What holds the landscape together, and what holds music together,
Is faith, it appears--faith of the eye, faith of the ear.
Nothing like that in language...