Found this rather haunting picture in a series of photographs by blind photographers.. part of a spectacular new exhibit at the University of California, Riverside which "raises extraordinary questions about the nature of sight."

Kurt Weston, Mask

(c) by the artist, courtesy of UCR/California Museum of Photography

A gay man who lost his sight to AIDS in 1996, Weston's work explores the stigma of disease and decay. His daily battle to stay alive is transformed into an unflinching look at his (and our) mortality: "These photographs are about the realization of loss," he says. "About losing your facade. They say, 'This is your new reality. This is your strange new flesh. Let's take a look." 

Reminds me of this excerpt from a poem (Embrace) by Mark Doty:

You weren't well or really ill yet either;
just a little tired, your handsomeness
tinged by grief or anticipation, which brought
to your face a thoughtful, deepening grace.  

Here's another great one from the series..

Gerardo Nigenda, Entre lo invisible y lo tangible, llegando a la homeostasis emocional

 (c) by the artist, courtesy of UCR/California Museum of Photography

Born in Oaxaca, Mexico, the 42-year-old Nigenda calls his images "Fotos cruzados," or "intersecting photographs." As he shoots, he stays aware of sounds, memories, and other sensations. Then he uses a Braille writer to punch texts expressing those the things he felt directly into the photo. The work invokes an elegant double blindness: Nigenda needs a sighted person to describe the photo, but the sighted rely on him to read the Braille. The title of this work translates roughly to: "Between the invisible and the tangible, reaching an emotional homeostasis."

Lots more gems at the link. Do go and enjoy the visions of these blind people. Like one of them (Pete Eckert) says: 'If you can't see, it's because your vision is getting in the way."

If it's Britain's Got Talent, expect the unexpected! Especially this year...first Susan Boyle, then Shaheen Jafargholi, then Jamie Pugh, and now Greg Pritchard... quite a year at the BGT!



Simon: "Like a dog meowing - it just shouldn't do that" :)

I thought of starting a series of tweets with a haiku (and accompanied link) by a leading haiku master on Twitter but I think given the beauty and prolific output of many of the haiku experts, perhaps an occasional blog post with a collection of 17 haikus (5-7-5; get it? ;)) is better to help the reader enjoy a haiku moment from from time to time.

I could wax poetic about haikus a lot but will write - hopefully in simple terse terms - some other time. For now, let us start at pretty much the beginning and let me set you ...

...On the Poet’s Trail

Footsteps fall softly
Following the path
Of Japan’s haiku master.

National Geographic article by Howard Norman

Photograph © by Michael Yamashita

Of the hundreds of haikus by haiku master, Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), I have chosen 17 to give us a sampling this morning...

Winter solitude --
in a world of one color
the sound of wind

Early fall --
the sea and the rice field
all one green

Not this human sadness,
cuckoo,
but your solitary cry

Even in Kyoto --
hearing the cuckoo's cry
I long for Kyoto

The crane's legs
have gotten shorter
in the spring rain

A solitary
crow on a bare branch-
autumn evening

A flash of lightning:
Into the gloom
Goes the heron's cry.

Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggests they
are about to die 

A bucket of azaleas
in its shadow
the woman tearing codfish

Wrapping the rice cakes
with one hand
she fingers back her hair

By the old temple
peach blossoms,
a man hulling rice

Spring rain
leaking through the roof,
drippling from the wasp's nest

Now I see her face,
the old woman, abandoned,
the moon her only companion

Many nights on the road
and not dead yet --
the end of autumn

How admirable!
to see lightning and not thing
life is fleeting

Another year gone --
hat in my hand,
sandals on my feet

1st day of spring
I keep thinking about
the end of autumn

Lots more here.

Of course, I should add that a lot is perhaps lost or changed in translation from Japanese to English; not only in terms of syllable-count but also actual depth and serenity.

For example read these 31 translations & discussion of Basho's most famous haiku.

The old pond;
A frog jumps in —
The sound of the water.

Also another example of differing translations by 3 leading English language haiku specialists of 8 of Basho's haikus.

Neil Gaiman's Advice to Writer: "Read a lot and live..... Go do stuff. Go get your heart broken and then come back and write some more"



Go listen to the sentence about "like bricks onto a wall" too... pretty basic stuff but so tough to do, no?

Also, listen to this 2006 speech he gave in Berkeley on a book tour for Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders....

..and his recent interview on Colbert Nation:

Neil Gaiman

Incidentally, I have not read any of Gaiman's work though I have heard many friends rave. Maybe one of these days, I'll start.

Also, see this lovely short clip for Blueberry Girl, written and read by Neil Gaiman.
 

Lovely! He apparently wrote this for or Tash, Tori Amos's daughter (who is also Gaiman's god-daughter).

Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald singing Dream a Little Dream of Me (Also here: ♫ http://blip.fm/~5o9mw)

Also this version from 1967 by Mama Cass Eliot.

Leave you with two more gems from Louis & Ella


and this featuring Ella alone - singing Gershwins "Summertime" at a concert in Berlin/Germany

Also this Billie Holiday version of Summertime.