When The Mind Travels: A Poetic Journey Into Photography 5ya68

Cendrine Marrouat

––––––––

WHEN THE MIND TRAVELS A Poetic Journey into Photography

©2015, 2021 Cendrine Marrouat. All rights reserved. Cover design and photographs by: Cendrine Marrouat

––––––––

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

When the Mind Travels: A Poetic Journey into Photography

Always Grow

Think Upon Those Things

Beyond the Path

Pleasures of the Soul

A Particle of You

Harmony

Is There

Grains of Sand

Haiku

Le Canal du Midi

Showing the Way

The Cherry Tree

The Steps We Take

Time

Towards the Sky

Wanderlust, I Am Home

Where Stars Shall Be Born

Wilderness Craves You

Peaceful Stroll

In the Garden

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Spruce Woods Provincial Park, Manitoba, Canada)

Always Grow

There is a light in the sky.

(Gather your thoughts.)

You see down low and up high.

(Gather your thoughts.)

Feeling strong and compelling,

Your limits are unsheltered.

(Gather your thoughts.)

Will you hear the words?

––––––––

Always grow!

Grow always!

(A beautiful sunset over Maui, Hawaii, USA)

Think Upon Those Things

Hush, baby, hush.

The lull of the world will come.

Nascent dreams and fantasies

Open the door to freedom.

––––––––

Hush, baby, hush.

Let the tears flow evenly

In the apex of your mind,

And feel the light through your spine.

––––––––

Think upon those things

That make us human.

Think upon those words

That turn us against one another.

Think about those instants

When change soars into the sky,

When you feel limitless,

Impervious to sorrow.

––––––––

So, next time you curse the world,

you are part of it.

your significance

In the eyes of the beholder.

––––––––

Then, and only then will you be able to think of beauty.

––––––––

But, right now, hush,

And think upon those things.

(Mar Musa, Syria)

Beyond the Path

Choose

stone steps

when others

would laugh and stare:

soul.

(Tongass National Forest, Alaska, USA)

Pleasures of the Soul

Silence

Has concealed songs

Yet reaches all spirits,

Conversing in languages

Conscience comprehends and relishes.

Pleasures of the soul are many –

Feel them throbbing within.

They all start in

Silence...

(Steps in the sand)

A Particle of You

There is a particle of you

That I will love, always.

A speck of tenderness

Mixed with a grain of happiness

That I , always.

You are greater than you think.

––––––––

That particle of you

Is a gift to the world.

It contains the essence

Of a bashful infant soul

That will soon grow.

Some may tease you,

But I never ever will.

––––––––

Because, that particle of you

Is a speck of tenderness

Mixed with a grain of happiness.

And it is a gift to the world

That I will treasure until

It is time for us to part.

––––––––

There is a particle of you

That I will love, always.

(St Vital Park, Winnipeg, Canada)

Harmony

Boughs bow to dreamers.

slacken your pace, feel treasured—

forests are God’s nest.

(Île de Ré, )

Is There

Beauty lies where hearts

Seek tenderness of inspired

Silent harmony.

––––––––

Truth travels faster,

Forming lines of spiraling

Blowing fantasy.

––––––––

Golden firmament—

Spacious emptiness of time—

When man was still new.

––––––––

Leafless trees abound

On adolescence’s porch

While my mind wanders...

––––––––

Peacefully breathing

Into echoes of essence,

Night sounds define life.

––––––––

Exhilarating

Presence of sunshine and rain

In morning’s billow.

––––––––

Beauty teasingly

lays in the lark’s morning song

and soothes my heart.

(Resafa, also known as Sergiopolis), Syria)

Grains of Sand

Have you ever looked beyond

The dusty road ahead?

The heart, on the brim of tears,

Awaits the echoes of concealed essence.

A few more steps

And the eternity of yesterday

Will sing for the children of today.

But before you keep walking,

You must touch the grains of sand.

No, this is not a dream.

The universal story compels you—

You have been here before.

––––––––

You have been here before,

A member of this land,

A part of the kinship,

A walker of the Earth.

When nothing but perfect embrace

Of soul and nature was found in structure.

––––––––

Do you recognize this homeland of yours now?

––––––––

Into the desert, the perfect place,

Where harmony meets the wind,

Where spirits still laugh and dance,

Where emptiness is true presence.

––––––––

Into the desert, the ecstasy,

When truth does set us free,

When death brings life back,

When the vessel of knowledge

Is contained in a grain of sand.

––––––––

Into the desert, naked and free.

Into the desert, utterly complete.

Into the desert, reconnecting with layers

Of meaningful refulgence.

––––––––

Now, the songs can start!

(A lake in Manitoba, Canada)

Haiku

stillness of the lake

as the ripples fade away—

man wants freedom's wings.

(Canal du Midi, Toulouse, )

Le Canal du Midi

A peaceful river

dabs its colours into the infinite—

a masterpiece

(Chamonix, )

Showing the Way

Glorified mountains

greet diving billows—

gems are where the heart is.

(A cherry tree in Syria)

The Cherry Tree

Come, come, my darling,

Let us sing the song of infinity

Under yonder cherry tree.

Then, we shall watch the sunset,

As though nothing mattered anymore.

The night will be young,

Willing to let the dream come true.

––––––––

Come, come, my love,

And let us caress the stars

On the wings of doves and angels.

Sooner or later, yonder valleys

Will be snowy and cold,

Willing to hide us from the world.

––––––––

No more tears;

No more fears.

Only silence and us.

––––––––

No more detours;

No more cruel lures.

Only truth and us.

––––––––

Whichever way the wind blows,

We shall be embraced and loved.

––––––––

So, come, my darling,

And let us become eternal

Under yonder cherry tree.

(Vintage fall colors)

The Steps We Take

Faded colors meet

Transcendental certainties—

On paths less travelled.

––––––––

A touch of sunbeam

Delighting bowed canopy—

Love breathes deeply.

––––––––

As the leaves await

Fortune’s swirling embrace,

Shadows speak of dreams.

––––––––

Love breathes deeply.

(Faculty of Legal Sciences in Toulouse, )

Time

History has been defied.

bricks are beautified—

time always has an audience.

(Oodena Celebration Circle, Winnipeg, Canada)

Towards the Sky

The hands that touch,

The tongues that speak,

The eyes that see,

We are, we are.

––––––––

The history that dances,

The night that breathes,

The silence that screams,

We are, we are.

––––––––

We are children of the earth,

Stardust in constant expansion,

Truth born of comion.

––––––––

We are pure and raw fear,

Aching for love and acceptance.

––––––––

But as we look towards the sky,

We catch Spirit drawing a smiling cloud.

And from the wind comes amnesty.

––––––––

For we were made to excel,

We were made to break the shell

Of comfort and pettiness.

––––––––

The hands that touch,

The tongues that speak,

The eyes that see,

We are, we are.

(Near Old Palmyra, Syria)

Wanderlust, I Am Home

In the depth of shadows,

Your calling is my freedom.

Come undone, my soul.

––––––––

In the darkness of oblivion,

I shall breathe away the pain.

Wanderlust, I am home.

––––––––

(I hear you, now)

––––––––

Tears and laughter...

Grieving and rejoicing...

Happiness is there for the taking.

––––––––

(You are with me)

––––––––

In the depth of quiescence,

I find them all holding hands,

My ghosts and future memories.

And I will love them deeply,

For today, I have found wisdom in a grain of sand.

––––––––

Wanderlust, I am home.

Wanderlust, I am home.

(I am breathing away the pain)

––––––––

“My child,

You are of eternity made.

I called your name many times,

But only today are you ready

For the heartbeats of history.”

––––––––

“My child,

You are of greatness made,

For I willed you so.

I am You and You are I.

And now, you shall come undone.”

––––––––

Wanderlust, I am home.

(A sunset over the Mediterranean Sea)

Where Stars Shall Be Born

The weary sun

s his watery bride—

let there be life!

(Playing hide-and-seek with the sun)

Wilderness Craves You

Wilderness craves you,

From head to toe,

From now to then,

From here to there.

––––––––

Wilderness craves you,

From rags to riches,

From right to wrong,

From young to old.

––––––––

Come as you are...

––––––––

Breathe in the rebirth of time,

Touch the centre of delight—

For in the embrace of death

Lies the secret of life.

(Canal du Midi, Toulouse, )

Peaceful Stroll

Ravishing nature

escorts truthful wanderings—

tag along the stream.

––––––––

Great paths are marked out

at times smooth, often rocky

but always sunny.

(A garden in Torcello Island, Italy)

In the Garden

When simplicity

catches the eye differently,

colors mix freely.

––––––––

When instants remain

long after beauty’s settled,

soul is love at play.

––––––––

Come to the garden,

for the world has stopped to watch

stones weave pretty tales.

––––––––

Come to the garden,

and relieve your heavy heart,

sheltered by ivy.

––––––––

As you tarry here,

long after beauty’s settled,

the feeling begins anew.

Are you ready?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cendrine Marrouat is a French-born Canadian photographer, poet, and the multigenre author of more than 30 books. In 2019, she founded the PoArtMo Collective and co-founded Auroras & Blossoms with David Ellis. A year later, they launched PoArtMo (Positive Art Month and Positive Art Moves) and created the Kindku and Pareiku, two forms of poetry. Cendrine is also the creator of the Sixku, the Flashku, and the Reminigram.

Cendrine writes both in French and English and has worked in many different fields in her 18-year career, including translation, language instruction, journalism, art reviews, and social media.

Some of her latest books include Songs in Our Paths: Haiku & Photography (2020-2021), Seizing the Bygone Light: A Tribute to Early Photography (2021), Rhythm Flourishing: A Collection of Kindku and Sixku (2020), Walks: A Collection of Haiku (All the Volumes and More!) (2020), Photography of Life and Living: The Black and White Book (2020), and In the Silence of Words: A Three-Act Play (2018).

––––––––

Website: https://www.cendrinemedia.com

Blog: https://creativeramblings.com

Books: https://creativeramblings.com/books

: [email protected]