"Are We Art?" - Original Poem in Response to Looking at the Cape White-eye From a Different Angle
Looking at things from a different angle results in a different understanding or a different appreciation of everyday objects or things. We are so used to, for example, bird photography being from a certain angle that when we are confronted with images from uncommon angles, it almost becomes uncanny, weird, alienating. I also think a lot of time these images are thrown into the graveyard of unnamed folders on our computers. We do not have time to sort through them but unlike images where the object is out of focus or already out of the frame, these images are relegated to the "what if" and "almost" category. And I think they deserve more attention.
This afternoon, after a long trip in the car, I heard the sounds of the Cape White-eye in the tree above me. Completely covered with tiny white flowers, they feast on the nectar or they eat the smaller insects that are also attracted to the flowers. Sitting on a lower angle, I could not see them from the front or the normal angle. I took photographs of them from below. Again, they were distracted by the mechanical shutter on my camera. I managed to dance around and get some images. The light fell perfectly. A single phrase jumped in my mind whilst I listened to their cheery chirps: Are we art? And so, a poem was born. Please enjoy the poem with the images of this stunning small and artistic-looking bird!
Are We Art?
An original poem
are we art
i can hear them sing
in their entangled songs
fluttering about
they taunt and tease
and bully my mind
with their indifference
to my quest for answers
are we art
their absence question
with the leaves rustling
and the bees busily
searching for better days
are we art
i try to resolve this question in vain
are we art
i see their tails disappear through the thicket
taunting me to follow them
deeper into the dark
where the question seems to lose all meaning
are we art
i grasp at some meaning
that i can rigidly place onto the world
but it all seems in vain
as they flutter away
I hope that you enjoyed the poem and the photographs, albeit from a different and strange angle. The words are my own and the photographs were shot with an old Nikon D300 and Tamron zoom lens. Do you think these images are usable? Are they art? Is the question meaningless? Please comment with your opinion! Stay safe and happy birding.
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My first answer, was very crass, "Are we art, who am I?":
So I decided instead, to ponder on the delicate images and imagery, I could almost hear the flutters of the biiiird twit twit!
haha let us entertain delicate imagery! Nah just kidding, I prefer the former over the latter!
I'm just seeing this now....and I'm crying my eyes out with laughter at 6 am.
I must tell the world...I'm in love with @edprivat's mind. (Well 92% of the time. 😂😂😂)
And now that statement is forever part of the Blockchain hahahahhaha
It feels a little weird to answer to a poem without making the answer a poem or at least few poemy lines. I wish I had it in me to do that, continue the dialogue with a poemick rhythm, to make meaningful dialogue, to ponder using the means of art but I think I'm missing a poem-muscle. But I can always try and compensate what I lack with some other muscle or brain part and hope for the best.
is it that nature in itself
is the greatest
artist of all
That's it, and that took a lot from me. And those lines also may be something that someone else has already said and I just remembered it. But before the poemy lines I sure did bend the word poem a lot. Tried poemystical and hope didn't end up with poemocking.
My favourite photos are the fourth and the last one. I like how the fourth photo has the disappearing beak and toes with a tight grip from the branch. Actually the second photo is also interesting.
Your bending of the word poem is poetry in itself, or maybe art! Thank you so much, I really appreciate your comment and writing/continuing of the poem. And just to console you, almost everything has been done. If we follow the post-modern stance, everything is just copies of copies or pastich! So your poem, if not original, is original in its lack of originality. Or something philosophical in that line of thought! Maybe when you train that muscle it will begin to work! But alas, your art and storytelling are poetic in nature.
My word bending muscles are much more flexible and stronger than my tiny poetry muscle. 😄
I prefer the word bending muscle! In philosophy, being able to bend words is a very neat trick to have up your sleeve.
Oh is it!? Cool! That might make me a half... or a quarter philosopher then. I excellence in word bending. In Finnish at least but I also try my best with English so that people who demand grammatically correct words and sentences usually loose their mind when talking with me.
I wonder what the relation between my home language (Afrikaans) and Finnish would be like. Afrikaans is a wonderful language in which we "word-bend" all the time. You can always hear when someone is not a native speaker due to this word-bending lacking in their understanding of the language.
We are all innate philosophers!
Finnish language bares no relation (sounds like or has same words) to other living languages than Estonian. (If that's what you meant.) Estonian and Finnish sound the same and we may also have same words which usually unfortunately have a whole different meaning, so without studying we do not easily even understand each other. Other fenno-ugrian languages are so far away from sounding like Finnish that I can't say anything abut their word bending qualities.
Finnish language does, on the other had have a natural word bending in it as the language contains suffixes. Does Afrikaans have this too?
basic form:
mennä = go (to go somewhere)
conjugations:
minä menen = I go
sinä menet = you go
hän menee = she/he goes
me menemme = we go
te menette = you go
he menevät = they go
And to make things more complicated:
(mietin) menemistä = (I pondered) about going
menisinköhän? = I wonder if I should go
(jätin) menemättä = I didn't go (literal translation: I left going)
And then there are the grammatically incorrect ways to bend Finnish words which I happen to love and do. Lots. Also in English.
(I'm sorry, this turned out to be a Finnish language lesson...)
I haven't listened Afrikaans that much but it sure has lots and lots of familiar words in it as it sounds like and probably is a little bit of a mix of English and Dutch which is a mix of German and Swedish and, I don't know, perhaps a little bit of French too. Anyway all languages that I've studied at some point.
I love how Afrikaans sounds! I love the rolling R's (same as in Finnish) and the (I don't know which letter or letter combinations it is) ch or something that seems to come from Dutch, pronounced from the back of the throat perhaps. It is a beautiful language, as you said. And it sounds like a rich, colorful language!
The problem with Afrikaans in my mind is that I find it really hard to recognize the words when someone speaks it (even if I know the meaning of the word). For me it sounds like you're in a terrible hurry and you have to swallow the word before you manage to complete it. Sorry, that's how it sounds sometimes. 😃 I may recognize the words if they are written but it's nearly impossible to understand when spoken. Same with Danish language. Impossible to understand when spoken as the words are pronounced so weirdly. Written Danish is easier, it resembles Swedish very much.
But I think and hope that the culture of word bending is universal and I think people have understood me well or at least enough when I write posts that contain English words that I've molded and bended to my needs.
I did linguistics for three years, and we never touched Finnish and this is one of the reasons, I presume, why.
Indeed, but we use it less and less because of the influence of, amongst others, English.
This is indeed very complicated! In Afrikaans we have to a certain degree this, but not as much. This is very interesting and now I really understand all of the "memes" on the internet about the troubles of learning Finnish.
No! This is really informative and interesting.
Indeed! We love to exaggerate the sounds to change the meaning of words. This is more informal and not part of the language, but maybe it is! Yes, "-ch-" in Dutch (e.g. praCHtig) turns to "-g-" in Afrikaans (e.g. praGtig) (English "beauty"). I love to use these "bold" and "in your face" sound in my poetry. I am planning on making a video about it soon!
No sorries. This is the whole joke in Afrikaans haha. Comedians in Afrikaans that know Dutch use it as a joke. The one analogy is that Dutch is very "flow-y" and slow, and Afrikaans is like a machine gun. We have some Dutch friends and they always ask us to talk slowly.
Cheers to that. May this creative enterprise never end.
Finnish language is hard to learn. And so few people speak it so I guess it will at some point be a dying language. And of course, because of the influence of English, as in so many other languages too, the language is transforming little by little. To Finglish which is fun as Finnish and English languages have nothing in common. And at some point all other Finnish words may be forgotten, except the word sauna.
Awesome! Can't wait to see it. :)
That is really sad though. On the one hand, we want to preserve languages as these utopian enclaves for culture and writing and unique words, on the other hand, we want the organic growth of languages (as language is never stagnant or static, always dynamic). We have the same problem in Afrikaans. Some people link their identities to Afrikaans (we call it "Afrikaner identity") and they cling to a very archaic Afrikaans. So few Afrikaans people actually understand them when they talk it. This form of Afrikaans is mostly written academic works.
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I think it’s an interesting angle even though it’s not a traditional way to get the shot. I still liked it! The bird is definitely like what’s that noise?! Lol. Cute bird and great shots! I like the poem as well!
Thank you so much! I was lucky. Two flocks of them came to visit. The first flock flew away with the sound of the shutter, the second flock was a bit less anxious. Their demeanor clearly shows their annoyance right!
It is a delightful poem! ❤️
This photography is the most adorable thing I've seen recently.
Your work is amazing my dear friend @fermentedphil. God bless you long.
Thank you so much, my friend. The same blessings to you and all your work!
Lovely as the pictures are, and they are lovely, I'm especially fond of the line of inquiry you follow in this poetic reflection:
they taunt and tease
and bully my mind
with their indifference
to my quest for answers
How, desperately, the mind seeks answers and finality and closure. When, in reality, all of life is shrouded in open-ended mystery and enigma. Even Freud admitted that nothing alive can be calculated. We are art, and art invites the viewer to live with the questions, patiently, until it trusts us with its secrets ;)
Thank you so much for the deep reading of these words! In a moment of utter poetic (spiritual?) unconsciousness I wrote these words without much thought.
I absolutely adore your words. This is my whole quest in philosophy, to produce questions! And to see that we are art. Relating to our previous comment on the mind and rationalism, it is according to my reading only recently that philosophy turned solely to the mind as an answer to science that became predominantly based on physicalism. My focus is on pre-renaissance philosophers that I think still had the idea of mind, body, spiritualism and the quest for art and all things related. Sorry, this comment is needlessly complicated and convoluted.
Yes, mind-body-spirit philosophy is a noble pursuit. I see philosophy and religion as twins separated at birth. Both, back in the day, were concerned with the Big Questions, how to live a good life and prepare for dying well, too.
Grateful my words resonate with you; I, too, was semi-unconscious when I wrote them to match the meditative state your words came from (& now I’m 3/4 unconscious with flu like symptoms, in bed, after Covid booster).
Be well, friend ✌🏼
Good luck with the bed rest, if it is not already done. It is not the best.
And thank you for sharing your semi-unconscious wisdom.
This is what I am doing philosophy for. The quest for these things. And like you mentioned, spirituality will also be included. Wisdom is not exclusive to the old philosophers.
Thank you, younger brother. Yes, feeling better, today, and grateful for basic good health (another minor miracle, which we take for granted).
Sending good vibes your way & wishing you a healthy mind in a healthy body 🙏🏽✨
That is so true! We need to say thank you for even just feeling alive! To a healthy body and mind and good vibes. 🙏
I like these shots. They offer a different perspective and the poem was great alongside them 👌
Thank you so much, my friend. I really appreciate it! All the best 🙏
hehehehe.... hmmm i wonder why you asked if the pictures are usable?
i'm really questioning that question now LOL
i feel - well, they were used! so of course they are usable hehehe
they graced this post quite nicely I might add hahahaha
the poem was wonderful - i loved the hide and seek nature of it... and i loved the bees searching for better days.
i didn't love the fact that they NEED to search for better days... but i loved your reflection on it. :)
its been a long time since i've visited... i want to apologize - but let's not ever. hehehe
lets just visit as life allows and let that be sufficient? hahahaha
then there's just a nice surprise when we meet :)
hi Phil!!! hahahaha
Visits are always surprises! There is a very complicated philosopher, Jacques Derrida, that wrote very convoluted and too dense to understand, but I will try to simplify. True hospitality is always characterized with an "absolute surprise", a visit can always happen unnoticed and I might never be fully prepared! What a strange way of conceptualizing a visit from a friend, but there we have it!
Thank you so much. I used them, even though I stated they are unusable! I live in contradictions.
Yes right, they should not need to search for better days. But in gardening (isn't gardening "using" nature as a paintbrush or pen for poetry?) I hope to make some small contribution to creating better days.
Thank you for your visit! I really appreciate it. My life the last week has been so hectic. I have not done a quarter of what I wanted and even less of what I needed to! May we find some solace in the coming weeks. Stay safe and thank you so much!
Hehehe life is always going to have those seasons...but they will never come with a burden of guilt from me to add to the stress!!!! 🥰 I know we meet when we meet and I love them each time!
So let's cling to your less convoluted version of Derrida's concept (Im sure I like yours better without even reading his. Hahaha) and hereby state that all surprise visits between Dreem and Phil shall be eternally acceptable and wonderful 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
In America...today is Thanksgiving! So I'm thankful for our friendship ❤️
Have a beautiful day!
Happy thanksgiving even though I am a bit late! We have family from London visiting us and with recent news (I am sure you saw; borders closing) it was a bit hectic to get them into the country. I think they got on one of the last flights.
To the future unplanned but eternally wonderful visits! Stay safe 🙏🌸😀
i'm so glad they got in!!!! oh my goodness - you have no idea how happy that makes me!!!!
(but sad that so many more will be refused)
and yes - yes - those future unplanned visits need to happen, my friend!
How are you holding up???
I am not that much affected by the turn of events. We live in an area where the numbers are not that high, and I am not planning to travel soon. But for my brother and friends that need to travel for work etc., things are a bit more hectic. I feel for them!
How are things that side of the pond? Got to admit, I am not up to speed on the situation in the US atm. I hope it is not that bad??