Deeper ~ Balroop Singh #writephoto

Posted on February 14, 2021 by Sue Vincent

A portal beckons
Adventurous spirit calls
Fears forbid next step
Yet we drop down to explore
Will we return to share?

Continue reading at Emotional Shadows

Posted in #writephoto, photo prompt, Photography, Poetry | 2 Comments

Impression of Contentment

Posted on February 14, 2021 by Sue Vincent
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Pablo Picasso

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Pablo Picasso image Wikipedia

I never really got contentment. “Are you happy?” I once asked a friend. “No, but I am content,” was his reply. To me, it wasn’t enough. It seemed like accepting some kind of mediocrity. I was young then and life was lived in all the vivid hues of passion. Emotion ran sky high or hit the depths… the times in between were bland, a mere waiting for the next rise and fall of the rollercoaster.

Emotions, back then, were all sharp-edged, like a cubist painting… and like such works, always disassembling the object of them to examine them from every angle. Some of the edges were so sharp you would bleed if you touched them… but you were alive. There were no in-between days of grey and dun.

Alizarine: sandorfi, maklary

Alizarine: Etienne Sandorfi, image: Maklary

A little older and the days took on a greater realism. The consequences of action and reaction were more direct as the responsibilities of adulthood were revealed in stark detail. Like looking in the mirror, these days reflected back at you only what you projected into them. The colours were still sharp; the detail and emotion clear… all the edges well-defined. A delineated life, with specific duties… niches for the fragmented self that is required by the roles demanded by the varied aspects of a society that likes to label everything.

But even that changed, morphing into abstraction where the lines and stark hues threw everything into question and the secure assumptions of youth that had flown direct as arrows suddenly seemed to realise that infinity is not a straight line. Stubbornly held beliefs were taken out of the strongbox and held up to the Light. Some were found to be tarnished, others broken, some simply too outmoded to be of any pertinent use. Yet there is a freedom in that de-cluttering of heart and mind, a simplicity that leaves much open to interpretation and, like a gallery, the fewer you hold on to, the more you can begin to appreciate what remains in all its glory.

Continue reading at The Silent Eye

Posted in Art, Spirituality | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Deeper Meaning ~ Iain Kelly #writephoto

Posted on February 14, 2021 by Sue Vincent

‘I’m worried for your welfare!’ she shouted up to him, trying to hide her genuine fear.

‘I’ll be fine.’ He had come this far, he wasn’t going to turn back now and chicken out in front of everyone. A bet was a bet. He stood in just his pants and looked down at the black pool.

‘Are you sure it’s deep enough?’

Continue reading at Iain Kelly

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Caught #midnighthaiku

Posted on February 14, 2021 by Sue Vincent

No heart remains unmoved

Not the cold nor the cauldron

Love ignites the flame

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We burn or are burned

Ageless spring or winter’s frost

Caught in timeless dance

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Higher emotions

Captured in the mirrored heart

Earthly reflection

Posted in Photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Deeper ~ Ritu Bhathal #writephoto

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Sue Vincent

It was mere seconds, but as I fell, it felt like time had slowed down.

I wondered how such beauty could be present at a time where my mind held thoughts not remotely beautiful.

The russets and golds on the leaves of the branch sticking out of the rocks.

Continue reading at But I Smile Anyway

Posted in #writephoto, photo prompt, Photography | 2 Comments

Laughter Lines by Sue Vincent

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Sue Vincent

A wonderful review from A. C. Flory…

Laughter Lines by Sue Vincent

I just left a 5 star review for Laughter Lines: Life at the Tail End by Sue Vincent. And I still haven’t stopped smiling. The review should be up on amazon.com in a day or two, but this is what I said:

I have never been a poetry person, but there’s something about Sue Vincents poems that really strikes a chord. They’re earthy, and funny, and poignant, and paint word pictures of things we’re all familiar with. Who has not dunked a biscuit [cookie] in coffee only to have it break and fall in the cup? Such a small, every day thing, and yet Vincent makes it laugh-out-loud funny.

Continue reading at Meeka’s Mind, the blog of A. C. Flory

Posted in Books, photo prompt, Photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

North-easterly: Monumental…

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Sue Vincent

We had spotted the cross on our way to Rudston, but as time was getting on and we still had a long way to go, we decided against stopping. Although it was an unusually fine and ornate example, we have seen many such crosses and they are usually Victorian or later, erected, more often than not, to the glory of the local gentry or as a mark of civic pride.

They are called Eleanor Crosses, but there were only ever twelve true Eleanor Crosses, erected by her husband, King Edward I, to mark the places where the body of Eleanor of Castile, Queen Consort of England, rested each night as it was brought from Harby in Nottinghamshire to Westminster Abbey in 1290.

In the end, after catching sight of yet another strange monument on our way through the village, we took note of the name… Sledmere… and determined to return that way and stop to take a look and we were glad that we did, for the Sledmere Cross is now more than a civic folly, it has become a war memorial for the village.

Inspired by the octagonal design of the Hardingstone Eleanor Cross, which is still standing, the Sledmere Cross was designed by the architect Temple Moore as a ‘simple’ village cross. Commissioned by Sir Tatton Sykes and erected in the last years of the nineteenth century, it served no real purpose other than as a display of the landowner’s wealth and social standing.

It was his eldest son, Sir Mark Sykes, who would give  the ‘folly’ a new purpose. Sykes was a traveller, politician and served as a diplomatic advisor in the Middle east during the First World War. It was as a result of the conflict that he transformed the cross into a memorial, fitting brass effigies akin to the ones used on medieval tombs, and listing the names of those fallen in battle.  The cross now stands and a permanent memorial to the men of the 5th Batallion Yorkshire Regiment and others from the estate who served and fell in the Great War. Sir Mark himself is included, his portrait recently renewed, attired as a Knight Templar. He died in 1919.

Continue reading at France & Vincent

Posted in adventure, albion, historic sites, History, Photography, Stuart France and Sue Vincent | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Selflessness…

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Sue Vincent

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For purveyors of the Prevailing View,

to be a self is the primal vice and to die

to self, in feeling, will, and intellect is the final virtue.

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It can only be the memory of such formulations

that calls up the unease

with which we find ‘selfness’ is still associated.

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Continue reading at France & Vincent

Posted in philosophy, psychology | Tagged | Leave a comment

Portraits…

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Sue Vincent

rs-469

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Photographing stones…

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rs-471

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Is not like photographing people.

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Continue reading at The Silent Eye

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Deeper ~ Willow Willers #writephoto

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Sue Vincent

Looking down at the drop and the dark waters below, Ben wondered could he make it. There was no other route out, no escape.
Listening for the sound of his pursuers he wished he’d never left home. But he had, and the dye was cast, below him swirled his Rubicon.

Continue reading at willowdot21

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