Friday, April 13, 2007




Being completely brain dead this morning and therefore at a total loss for words, how about we try something different?

Tell me what the above picture says to you, or what you imagine the story is behind it. Then, guess the name of it. In the spirit of Natalie's song snippets, I'll give you a hint. The name of this picture is contained within a line from the poem:

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.

And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.

All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay
Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass.
And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars
Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark.

And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all
Shining, it was Adam and maiden,
The sky gathered again
And the sun grew round that very day.
So it must have been after the birth of the simple light
In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm
Out of the whinnying green stable
On to the fields of praise.

And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house
Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,
In the sun born over and over,
I ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high hay
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs
Before the children green and golden
Follow him out of grace.

Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

4 comments:

Foofa said...

Something about the photo is really sad to me. It looks as if the child has something in hand, maybe a branch? All I could think is that is was the leash of a pet that suddenly dropped dead and the child is looking at the body all confused. I swear I am having a happy uplifting day.

Anonymous said...

I should know this.... is it "prince of the apple towns"? I remember you showing me this picture, and the circumstances under which the picture was taken, yada, yada, yada. Sooooo, if the title is right - that means that I DO listen to you - even though you alway think I don't. (my fingers are crossed that it's right.)

Anonymous said...

i think the shot is very peaceful, like he's looking for something, maybe his shadow.

With Love, Fat Girl said...

The photo is indeed called, "Prince of the Apple Towns" (thanks for listening, sis), though I would have preferred to let it go nameless.

Years ago when I was taking photography classes, the teacher gave us each a roll of infrared film, which is a bitch to use, and sent us around the city to take 36 magnificent exposures.

I went to this church where a lot of homeless people go to, and was focusing on the blankets hanging from a tree in the background (hard to see due to the pic's small size here), when a little arm went into my viewfinder.

It was this little kid, just wandering and doing little kid things. His mother started calling for him to come back but he didn't listen, he was just sort of tottering into the path, and I was praying she wouldn't come and get him before I got my picture.

I snapped this. What you don't see is his mom about 2 feet from his right, all loose tank top and bad perm, about to snatch him and give me the *dirtiest* look as if I was some pedophile.

If the look on her face hadn't of been so damning I would have loved to get her address to send her one of these, as I was very happy with the result. In this picture, he will always be my little prince.