About the Picture/Poem Display

The Form

The form of each of the eight weeks which together compose both the Spring and Fall
Picture/Poem Display is identical, and might be thought of as a kind of formal poem
in itself—much like a long sonnet—in which we move through a series of eight separate
stanzas or chambers.

Photo	Text	Photo	Text
1	a	5	e
2	b	6	f
3	c	7	g
4	d	8	h

Each week begins with Walking the World, top left. Here, I try to feature
different photographs of water in flowing movement, together with not poems but
more general texts. The idea is to create a kind of general philosophical context for
the other pieces which are to follow. In a way, this is rather like climbing up to
higher ground first in order to get an overview of the terrain to be negotiated during
the coming week's trek. Moving then step by step down the first column, then
on to the second row, the week concludes with a single, larger piece, usually celebrating
some phase or aspect of what I think of as the large-scale rhythms of the natural year.



The Epigrams

The epigrams which introduce each week are intended to serve as a kind of miniature
space in which we might briefly pause before the performance or journey begins.
Here, I showcase one photograph, accompanied by a short poem or saying taken from
the world literature, which together create a spiritual background resonance for
the entire octet or set of eight Picture/Poems which follows.This is a way of paying
tribute to those who have gone before me before setting off with the reader into what is in
many ways—at least, this is how it seems to me— still uncharted territory.

Spring

(1) Basho and the Morning Glory
(2) Ovid and No Trespassing
(3) Bob's: The Great Sea Has Sent Me Adrift
(4) Limestone Flats and The Miracle


Fall

(5) Walt Whitman and Sycamore Fall
(6) Ansel Adams and the Cockspur Hawthorn
(7) Wallace Stevens and Twenty Snowy Mountains
(8) Double epigram: Two Lights, Fresh Snow: Hildegard von Bingen;
Red Ribbons in Snow Storm: Kabir and Wallace Stevens

Finding One's Way

There are many different ways to explore the pictures and texts of Picture/Poems.
You may choose to look at all the images with their accompanying texts in sequence,
from beginning to end. If so, go to first Picture/Poems: Table of Contents I-IV
and then Picture/Poems:Table of Contents V-VIII and simply make your way
from top to bottom.

If you are more visually oriented, try going, one by one, to the PicturePage of each
individual week: | Week I | Week II | Week III | Week IV | and
Week V | Week VI | Week VII | Week VIII |

You can click on the frames as shown in the form above, or simply any photograph
which seems interesting or appealing, thereby opening that particular space.From there,
it all depends. Some chambers will stop one level down, while others are more like
setting off one a kind of 'side' or secondary journey, moving through a series of four,
five or even six nested spaces. From the single image of a flower, you might wind up
further down stream looking at or listening to a musical composition which it inspired.
Indeed, I like to think that that's the real beauty of walking the world. And—it might 
be added, the new medium of the Internet, as well. The new or unexpected could be
be waiting around every corner.

For those who are more systematic in inclination and wish to go straight to the poems
and other texts, this alternative is also available at Picture/Poems: Text Table. And, of course,
you can look up the title of a particular piece, or explore pages more at random, by using
the Picture/Poems: Complete Index.


Happy wandering!
   Cliff Crego