EARTH ~

ANCESTOR OF THE HUNTING HEART



There is a distance in the heart
and I know it well—
a somberness of winter branches,
dry stubble scarred with frost,
late of the sunburnt field.

Neither field, nor furrow,
nor woodlot patched with fences,
but something wilder: a distance
never cropped or plowed,
only by fire and the blade of the wind.

The distance is closer than
the broomswept hearth—
that time of year when leaves
cling to the bootsole,
are tracked indoors,
lie yellow on the kitchen floor.

Snow is a part of the distance,
cold ponds, and ice
that rings the cattle-trough.

Trees that are black at morning
are in the evening gray.
The distance lies between them,
a seed-strewn whiteness
through which the hunter comes.

Before him in the ashen snow-litter
of the village street
an old man makes his way,
bowed with sack and stick.

A child is pulling a sled.

The rest are camped indoors,
their damped fires smoking
in the early dusk.

JOHN HAINES

(1924 – March 2, 2011)





Photo © Dorothy Alexander

EARTH ~

WHILE DEEP SNOW

FALLS IN THE

NORTH WOODS



clear

clean



tea

cups



in

the



kit

chen









Bob Arnold
from Builder


photo © bob arnold

EARTH ~

NINE AFGHAN BOYS COLLECTING FIREWOOD KILLED BY NATO HELICOPTERS

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/world/asia/03afghan.html?ref=global-home

I met Ali yesterday when with the other friends were in Ghahroud (an small town near Ghamsar) walking in a path of an almost dried river.
He is 11 years old but can not go to the school because he is from Afghanistan ! This was what he said about himself. I did feel ashamed of being an Iranian in front of him when he was talking about his situation! I wish I was able to send him to the school.
He said :there is someone from Afghanistan who teaches me how to read and write and how to drive a loader machine the same time. While he was talking I couldn’t take off my eyes from his hardened hands. When I asked him where you wish to live, he looked at a very far place and said nothing!

He was collecting woods beside a dried tree. I captured his portrait with the roots of the dried tree. It seemed that the river has taken the tree off in one of its torrents and now both river and tree were dry. We don’t help Afghani people because their roots are out of their lands…As it goes on, this flood of disaster in the region will root up our tree, one day! This was what I was thinking of afterwards…

علی گفت که اجازه نداره در ایران مدرسه بره چون افغانیه!! در برابر نگاهش از ایرانی بودن خودم خجالت کشیدم.

photo : flickr