embodied poetry

‘Look beneath your feet.’ ~ Zen Buddhist proverb

I have long been fascinated by ideas of connectedness expressed in Eastern philosophy, and its attempts to transcend dualities through both art and poetry (notably with haiku and haiga traditions), alongside its concept of ‘the beauty of the blank space’. I love the Zen Buddhist question, ‘What is right before your eyes?’ Such a deceptively simple inquiry cuts right to the essence of art, not least photography! I take a notepad with the intention of complementing each picture of various scenes, sketched through the written word laying the basis for a haiku or poem, which sort of mirrors the technique of shooting an image in RAW before post-processing. An embodied experience amid nature is integral to the whole idea and below is an image taken from a walk on Dartmoor with an accompanying haiku. Annoyingly, for some reason, the photos appear slightly out of focus on my website, therefore I am sharing a wider selection of initial works that merge photography with haiku on Flickr (until I can figure out how to share on here without blurring! The one below just about passes, although is a bit crisper on Flickr).

Untitled 30 (Bridford Wood)

shadows cast over
leaves and twigs on woodland path –
the afternoon sun