Monday 8 June 2009

mythical waiting in washed-out, yet enduring colours







They say we should imagine Penelope happy.
Do not be deceived:
her waiting is not the expression of love,
nor of her faithfulness
nor does her waiting represent
any such nameable feeling,
the warmth of a young body
or the steadiness of a soul.

Her suitors don't know it,
nor does her boy with rosy lids,
her sailor lost in the arms
of a more beautiful song -
none of them know.

Her hair spins the shroud,
the sea and the land
breathing on the ribs of war,
her gaze weaves the garden,
the burial of petals,
the shadowy leaves on a wall,
the footsteps of impatient sandals
on her hidden hips,
the lover himself,
with his proud
and lonely bow.

They say we should imagine Penelope happy.
Do not be deceived:
Her waiting is birth at dawn,
her waiting is murder at night
yet in the centre of this waiting,
like a black spider without a face,
she sits and stares
into her own myth.






























33 comments:

  1. first one is good, last one is good concept but imperfect realisation, rest are questionable ;)
    (soon she will regret asking about my opinion) ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh no, she can regret many things, but not aksing someone what he/she really thinks about something :-) sometimes the trouble is to find ways to get that out of them, though i think i am quite good at that :-)

    "questionable" is high praise in my eyes :-), i prefer doubts and challenge to clear-cut perfection.

    ReplyDelete
  3. roxana, I thought third one is yours.. Fingers and.. :p I love the dark misty burgandy.. quite unique tone of yourself.. actually it reminds me of Sherlock Holmes under the night fog in London.. how stupid frankness I have!! How can I associate such a charming tone of color to the gloomy dectective.. can't I ?! Just curse me.. :p

    ReplyDelete
  4. nice, i like the penelope story. and i very much agree re questionable!

    ReplyDelete
  5. no doubt a very effective method
    how about a clear-cut imperfection?

    ReplyDelete
  6. i love the atmosphere of this post

    te imbratisez

    m

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ce frumoase sunt prima si ultima, sunt asa misterioase!!...si cromatica e superba...ca de obicei:)

    ReplyDelete
  8. well, actually Peter, they say the more unexpected the association, the more creative the mind - and i'd have never thought of Holmes in this case, for sure :-) but i think i understand why, there is a lot of mystery in the images, or so i see it - even if the gloomy detective was quite immune to the charm of such dreamy young ladies :-) the one who would have fallen for them would have been Arsene Lupin, if you know him - the charming French villain :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. swiss, i was a bit nervous waiting for your reaction re Penelope, as i know how much you are into mythological re-writing yourself :-) now i am relieved :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. hmm, Eneles - i think a clear-cut imperfection can in some cases mark the birth of a masterpiece - but one needs something more than just 'talent' to achieve that, perhaps grace - much easier to achieve 'clear-cut perfection' :-)
    you should know better.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Manu, thank you for telling me this :-)

    si eu, mult de tot!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Edith, multumesc :-) cromatica s-a nascut dintr-o greseala, a propos de imperfectiuni, nu aveam la mine decat film de 800 si era un soare demential afara, asa ca toate culorile au iesit aiurea si am fost nevoita sa le transform in asta :-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. oh roxana.. how smart the counter-blow!..!.. I just knocked down on the floor.. bleeding.. :-p .. lovely.. my.s..t..e...ry... la..d...y...

    ReplyDelete
  14. interesanta abordare,se poate crea o ARTA din greseala....am patit-o si eu

    ReplyDelete
  15. I love the first photo for the balance of its composition and for something mysterious about it, as if it is set before the entrance to an ancient shrine --- and the third, hands cradling petals, graceful hands in the act of apprehending what remains, even now.

    The poem, too, an intrigue, a weaving, so fundamental to everything here --- the essential that can only be approached by saying what it is not, this pure in-betweeness that opens at last into its own myth....

    ReplyDelete
  16. So hard to choose between the second and third photos!Each has its own appeal (and don't ask me what that is!)

    Take care,

    b.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Molto belle sono le tue fotografie Ciao Roxane un caro saluto
    Maurizio

    ReplyDelete
  18. Très délectant pour mon imagination cela me fait du bien aujourd’hui de lire les photos cette couleur mauve de beauté toujours ce travail admirable Roxana merci pour mes yeux. .

    ReplyDelete
  19. Peter, don't tell me it is so easy to knock you down on the floor :-P

    ReplyDelete
  20. multumesc, Carol, pentru vizita. da, asa este :-)

    ReplyDelete
  21. James, you know, i was not sure about those pictures, but if there was something about them that convinced me to post, was the sense of mystery... and perhaps of being lost in something atemporal. hence my idea of the myth.

    you are so sensitive, as always, to the way i try to weave images and (my) words - and this is so beautiful:
    "the essential that can only be approached by saying what it is not, this pure in-betweeness that opens at last into its own myth"

    i could just give up my 'poem' there and replace it with this :-)

    ReplyDelete
  22. billoo, now you've made me curious: i don't see anything that could appeal to you in those pictures, there are certainly no food innuendos :-) unless you belong to the tribe of the Rose Petal Eaters? in this case you might find this recipe useful:
    http://www.ehow.com/how_2297120_eat-rose-petals.html

    but don't you dare do that before my eyes! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Maurizio! grazie...

    always a pleasure to hear from you...

    ReplyDelete
  24. Allan, je suis plus qu'enchantee de savoir que je peux prendre soin de tes yeux a l'aide de mes photos :-)

    c'est important pour moi quand tu me dis que tu aimes ce que je fais, et pourquoi - aussi parce que ton approche photographique est si differente de la mienne! moi, je ne suis pas si douee pour la photo 'documentaire'...

    ReplyDelete
  25. Well, you wouldn't! Naturally[ lol :-) ]

    No food innuendos? Oh, I don't know. Food for thought.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Mysterious and haunting, like other images and words I'm slowly discovering here in your pages... a pleasure...

    ReplyDelete
  27. now I am dead.. I feel I am totally naked and stand in front of you.. :p :p

    ReplyDelete
  28. I remember the first time I read you I thought to myself, "maybe once we knew one another, were related somehow, in another time and place" ... and I thought this because you reached somewhere down into a chromosome depth. Then it occurred to me that maybe we never did know one another, but some part of me, is wishing it so.

    ReplyDelete
  29. is it the season of waiting, my friend?

    when thinking of penelope I feel sorrow for a woman that is depicted only fom the past, never toward a future, we must be very careful to not be placed in a similar position, i guess

    ReplyDelete
  30. b, good to know that 'food for thought' is also welcome, when other food is out of reach :-)

    ReplyDelete
  31. S., we can't be sure of this, can we? so few things we can be sure of in this life, and the things which matter most seldom fall into this category. but the wishing, the longing is what matters, isn't it? i wish too it were true. and perhaps wishing can make things true, as they say - somehow, sometime...

    ReplyDelete
  32. Thank you Owen - what would be art if not 'haunting' - which doesn't mean that i think about my images in this way, but i am happy that you do - (someone does)

    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  33. Hey, Marta, feeling better? (it means that my hug worked, see how modest i am :-)
    i am glad to hear from you here. i think the 'season of waiting' is perhaps always open, no matter what. especially if we see 'waiting' as 'longing' for something which always eludes us.
    yes, you are right about Penelope, that is why i tried to look at her waiting from a different point of view here, to escape this traditional depiction of hers.

    ReplyDelete