A hyper-sensitivity of feeling
your art connects across the senses
The roughness of ancient bark
beneath gentle fingertips
A kiss from rock-pool water
warm against bare ankles
A double exposure
a murmuration
it’s poetry, the sensuality
the sheer never timid beauty
lensed so gracefully
with such assurance and dexterity
The texture, a waking daydream
a cloak of fog, shaft of sunlight
A cinematic freeze-frame
marked by absence
the distance or proximity
of pain and recovery
Point and click, your dark-room trick
it’s as if you have control
over the mountains
the birds, the tides
or consummate authorship
of the nuance you convey
A solo figure in vast expanse
an aloneness I recognise
searching but serene
Lost in the careful creation
of an endless mythology
loudly reverberates in me
The slow creep of new tissue
like quietly vanishing tattoos
it’s at your back and haunches
as your work builds and soars
so far from that place
expressive in its woozy warmth
I hear the touch, witness the aroma
I exist in awe and quiet wonder
A world scatters its knitted beauty
a murmuration
Little charcoal sketches
across watercolour paper
The spine is a map
a breadcrumb trail
we trace with our fingers
but we can’t go back
ephemeral and observable only
in reflection or a photograph
Dusk tides, an evening deer
a crumbling barn, eiderdown snow
A swimsuit girl, the Northern Lights
a neon sign, a broken rainbow
midnight phone booth, stitches in skin
untethered and inspirationally free
Your photography is a place
I love to visit when I can
It’s pure poetry you pen
with the light, with your lens
A lasting comfort, you translate
the message I can’t help but take;
It’s impossible
impossible not to love
the beauty of this world…
[2021]
Thanks for reading.
An ode to the exceptional work of one of my favourite photographers; Margaret Durow.
The Lighthouse 
Wonderful tribute, Tom! Beautifully written 🙂
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Ah, thanks for reading Chris. For me great, evocative photography is the art form most akin to poetry – and perhaps even more transportive. I’m so pleased you enjoyed. 🙏🏼
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Expressive art and evocative photography create the same kind of feelings as the words of a beautifully crafted poem or a lyrical prose.
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Agreed. Absolutely – and in a split second.
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So atmospheric, as is Margaret’s artistry.
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Thank you Peter! I can’t help but get a bit lost in photography as good as that, it triggers my imagination no end. Plus I’ve been pinching her photos to accompany my poems for over a year now, so I wanted to give something back. Thanks for reading & Happy Wednesday!
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Beautiful Tom and my word Margaret’s photos are truly captivating, worthy of your Ode.
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Thanks Secrets 🙂 So pleased you read and enjoyed. Great, evocative photography has always captivated me and it’s nice to have found a way to put it into words. Oh and I have a question I’d been meaning to ask you actually, about poetry collaborations. I’ll message you when I get chance… Thanks for reading.
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It’s a great piece Tom. Sure send me a message when you can. I’ll make sure I keep an eye out for it.
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Ah thank you! I’ll be in touch… 🙏🏼
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So good: “Lost in the careful creation / of an endless mythology”
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I suspect all artists love to get lost in that place. It’s certainly something I long to do… Thanks for reading!
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Love the reading Tom.
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Ah thank you Peter, much appreciated! 🙂
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