When the city noises commingle and meltWith a restless something half-seen, half-felt—I see them always there,Upon the low, smooth wall before the church;That row of little girls who sit and stareLike sparrows on a granite perch.LOUIS UNTERMEYER
A worthy entry for milestone 300! Now, only 65 days away from a one-YEAR milestone.
Dev, I gotta say, your blogging consistency is something I both admire and envy. And especially like this photo — great lines working together for visual effect. Might it benefit from a caption in the bottom black area? (Naah! probably that would be too trite and predictable.)
Congratulations, and keep the momentum.
Gary, none of this would be here without your constant prodding. So let me thank you for pushing me to make a website and populating it with entries.
About that 365… I am torn between stopping the daily post after one year. On one hand it kind of has a completeness to it. It can sit there like a completed project. On the other hand, when I started I had in mind Trey who posts a daily photo and has been doing it for years. It keeps the website fresh, just like a daily routine. But then, making daily posts is quite a commitment, especially the way I have been doing it. There is the photo, which I have to select from the library (well, first I have to shoot it in order to have it in the library!). Then I have to select a poetry or writing snippet. After all these days, my own “known poets” repertoire is running low. I have to read new poetry in order to quote it, which in of itself isn’t a bad thing, but as part of a daily project isn’t quite as relaxing as reading poetry is supposed to be!
Anyway, I have to decide what to do. I will perhaps continue but if I do I must change the format of the post. Any thoughts? Suggestions?
Dev, I understand your dilemma! What you’ve done here is admirably labor-intensive. Hmm.
If you do choose to continue, you might consider using not quoting poetry every day, but only when you feel like it. And on other days, simply make some terse comment about something. Or not-so-terse, if you feel like it. Or omit the photo.
Regarding this last point, I’ve noticed that on my own blog, not using a cover image doesn’t seem to hamper feedback — at least, not all the time. Several prominent bloggers (notably Seth Godin) post daily short commentary, but almost never images. In today’s graphics-laden world, one could argue that this actually makes their stuff stand out! Plus, it’s undeniably mobile-friendly: Ultra-low-bandwidth, auto-adjusts to any screen, etc.
About finding new poets: One that I always recommend is the Danish physicist-poet, Piet Hein, whose “Grooks” I find priceless. I own the first five volumes of his terse verse, and can quote most of them by heart (and often do). The shortest complete poem of his I can recall at the moment: “Co-existence — or no existence.”
I’ll have to look up Piet Hein. It sounds like this one anthology by Tagore. The “poems” are very short, couple lines at most. This is also like verses from Hindu scriptures known for enigmatic brevity.
Thank you for your suggestions. I have considered not quoting poetry every day, that part is the most time consuming. Just a photo sounds good. With poems or captions or quotes to accompany here and there, of course. But I hadn’t considered just text. My primary purpose of the website was photography but I suppose it doesn’t have to be a photo every day, does it? I promote my site by saying daily dose of beauty and inspiration. But it doesn’t have to be visual, I suppose. Have to think this over within the next two months.