One day long ago
a yellow kite tugged and soared
straining for freedom,
a boy unaware
of our presence in his duel
with the cunning wind.
....
The river runs fast and angry and the watermeadows have flooded. I'll need to take the long way round to the railway station this morning. The heavy skies have their own beauty but it isn't for me today. Too much grey. Too much rain. I've been looking through my photographs in search of a particular memory of summer.
It was taken in June, I believe, sometimes in the early 1990s. My father and I drove out one morning for a walk on Harting Down . I remember the feel of the warm breeze on my face, the springy turf, our hesitant conversation - sadly we didn't often talk one-to-one without my mother being present. The quality of the photo could be better - a bad workman blames his tools but it was taken with a very cheap, very basic, camera. Yet the combination of the energy flowing through the solitary kite flyer, his absorption and focus, the sweep of the downs and the distant memory of a summer's warmth still captivates me.
And the photograph was taken from the crest of a hill. Throughout this lifetime I've lived in the flatlands, on river plains and estuaries. I know that I need to climb a hill, any hill. Regularly.
I need - always - to be reminded of the long view.
6 comments:
I agree we have had too many grey skies lately. The photo speaks of freedom.
I have always longed to live close enough to a hill that I could climb everyday, somewhere to go to think, to admire the view, so see nature ---maybe one day ............
so lovely - the image and the haiku and the memory. :)
Love the long view too . . . my father & i have grown much closer since my mother died little under a year ago. She pretty much demanded our attention and we ceded it to her. Getting acquainted with my father has been a joy and very, very good for my sense of self. Odd that . . . or maybe not! :-)
(o)
Thank you everyone.
Thankyou for this. A glorious image. And the idea of taking 'the long view', is just what I need today.
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