Flight lifts us
Not so lightly as a bird,
But ten thousand tons
Of plastic and metal.

Drifting past tops of towns
Effortlessly grinding
The engines
To stay afloat.

Below is
A pastel filled
pastoral scene.

I never noticed the
Emptiness of the fields,
Or their vastness--
Around a careless
Rural dream.

A Season of Poetry

I finished my summer quarter of school a little over two weeks ago. I've been trying to take advantage of my time off during the interim by pursuing pastimes that I love.
My two weeks off involved social events and spending extra time with my friends. I went to bed late. I slept in exceptionally late only to get up briefly and return to bed and read--novels, short stories, devotions & new poetry (and wrote a few bad poems, as well). Also, making new music mixes, cleaning my house as little as possible, watching episodes of my favorite tv shows & films, downloading Skype and talking to Sarah & Phil in Japan A LOT (yes, joy and elation). I experimented with pastels (my favorite medium, besides photography, words and clay). The only thing missing was a trip (or several) to the beach and the Bahamas (I looked at cruises online and daydreamed).

Monday, 10 September marks the beginning of my last quarter here at SCAD (hopefully).

I picked up a book of Rainer Maria Rilke's poems during one of my recent trips to Barnes and Noble (have I mentioned lately that I love bookstores and books?). Rilke is fast becoming one of my new favorite poets. So, now I'll fill the rest of this post up with his poems. He has been described as "the poet of night and its vastness; the poet of human separations; the poet of thresholds and silences, of landscapes charged with remoteness and expectancy; the poet--especially--of solitude, in its endless inflections."

I know I have mentioned before that I am a fan of short poems. Although Rilke's vary in length and breadth, he communicates his thoughts and existence beautifully in few words.

Happy Reading, all.
And cheers from Hildegarde

INITIAL (from The First Book, Part Two)

Out of infinite desires rise
finite deeds like weak fountains
that fall back in early trembling arcs.
But those, which otherwise in us
keep hidden, our happy strengths--
they come forth in these dancing tears.

INITIAL (from the Second Book, Part One)

Let your beauty manifest itself
without talking and calculation.
You are silent. It says for you: I am.
And comes in meaning thousandfold,
comes at long last over everyone.

EVENING

Slowly the evening puts on the garments
held for it by a rim of ancient trees;
you watch: and the lands divide from you,
one going heavenward, one that falls;

and leave you, to neither quite belonging,
not quite so dark as the house sunk in silence,
not quite so surely pledging the eternal
as that which grows star each night and climbs--

and leave you (inexpressibly to untangle)
your life afraid and huge and ripening,
so that it, now bound in and now embracing,
grows alternately stone in you and star.

CLOSING PIECE

Death is great.
We are his completely
with laughing eyes.
When we feels ourselves immersed in life,
he dares to weep
immersed in us.

Note: These selections are copied from Edward Snow's bilingual, translated edition of Rilke's The Book of Images.

Back to School, back to work

Space and time offer no satisfaction,
Working for food that perishes?

Trying to scratch the perpetual itch.
So immediately distraught,

Such immediate distress destroys
your momentary solitude.

Back Stateside

My trip back across the pond went well. I flew from England to Scotland, then Scotland to Atlanta. I made friends with some Scotts heading over to the states on vacation. I love Scottish and British people.

It's nice to be in the same time zone (or just one or two over) from those that I care about the most (Sarah and Phil are still 12 zones away, though).

I have turned my phone back on. I went back to church yesterday in Savannah! I am half finished unpacking my new apartment. School starts in exactly one week.

Resolution is the word of the day.

There are many photos still waiting to be uploaded from Italy and England.

Thanks for tuning in--it's been a great adventure. I am sure there will be more to come, or at least I hope so.

Jetsetting

Ciao, ciao from Firenze (Florence).

I am on my second trip to Florence and Anna has just made her official introductions with the city. It's one of my favorite cities in Italy. We are having a blast here--living it up and being awed by the architecture, culture and food.

We have two more days here and then off to London.

The count down to coming home is on...8 days to go.

Exposition & Vernissage

My final project and work, culminating into a show.


Overall space


Close ups of my work


Happy & Tired.

The end.

The Finality of Finals

Right now as I type this message, I am sitting with a power drill in front of me.

Finals are a peculiar time in school.

People start staying up all night. In response to stress, some become irritable, some become isolated, others become wired for action. This quarter, I can't help myself from laughing. Everything becomes amusing and funny in a very surreal way. I suppose it is a better alternative than crying or screaming.

Finals are also the time where students (I) look back and ask ourselves (myself) if we've (I've) been productive--have I truly redeemed the time I have spent here? Have I been productive? Have I used the time that God has given me wisely?

The answer is sometimes discouraging and disheartening. However, this quarter, I have been able to work on the same project throughout the entire 8 weeks. Everywhere I went and photographed I was able to add to the collection of images to be used. It has been a productive time here.

My work has surprisingly turned into minimalist, abstract images that look more like paintings than photographs. Who would have known?

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here. With the exception of having to be away from church, it's been a remarkable experience. I am not sad to leave, though. I am ready to get back to living normal life again and try to begin to digest all the things that I have seen and heard and done while living amongst the French.

So, now I take my power drill and get back to mounting my photos for the show.