"We are shelves, we are Tables, we are meek, We are edible, Nudgers and shovers In spite of ourselves. Our kind multiplies: We shall by morning Inherit the earth. Our foot’s in the door." Sylvia Plath (1959) #photography #mushrooms #PotD #poetry #SylviaPlath #macro #tree #roots

"'Hope' is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all -" Emily Dickinson (1861) #photography #bird #silhouette #tree #BirdPhotography #PotD #poetry #EmilyDickinson #perch #branches #BlueSky

"Early in the day it was whispered that we should sail in a boat, only thou and I, and never a soul in the world would know of this our pilgrimage to no country and to no end." Rabindranath Tagore (1910) #photography #boat #sea #PaddleBoard #poetry #PotD #Tagore #SoundOfIona #sail #ketch

"Moments of great calm, Kneeling before an altar Of wood in a stone church In summer, waiting for the God To speak; the air a staircase For silence;..." R S Thomas (2004) #photography #Abbey #IonaAbbey #PotD #reflection #poetry #RSThomas #cross #window #prayer #IonaCommunity

"How well the skillful gard’ner drew Of flow’rs and herbs this dial new, Where from above the milder sun Does through a fragrant zodiac run; And as it works, th’ industrious bee Computes its time as well as we." Andrew Marvell (1681) #photography #garden #PotD #poetry #Marvell #Clachanach #Iona

"How still, How strangely still The water is today. It is not good For water To be so still that way." Langston Hughes (1926) #photography #sea #waves #patterns #blue #deepblue #PotD #poetry #LangstonHughes #art #DiscoveredArt #NatureArt

"The Moon is distant from the Sea - And yet, with Amber Hands - She leads Him - docile as a Boy - Along appointed Sands -" Emily Dickinson (1862) #photography #moon #sunset #PapsOfJura #Scotland #WestCoast #PotD #poetry #EmilyDickinson #TheWesternIsles #TheHighlands #Iona

"A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky." Maya Angelou (1983) #photography #bird #silhouette #sky #PotD #poetry #MayaAngelou #Black&White #horizon #FreeAsABird

"It is a beauteous evening, calm and free, The holy time is quiet as a Nun Breathless with adoration; the broad sun Is sinking down in its tranquility; The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the Sea" William Wordsworth (1802) #photography #IonaAbbey #PotD #poetry #Wordsworth #sunset #peace

"At once a voice arose among The bleak twigs overhead In a full-hearted evensong Of joy illimited; An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small, In blast-beruffled plume, Had chosen thus to fling his soul Upon the growing gloom." Thomas Hardy (1900) #photography #thrush #PotD #poetry #Hardy #birds

"The linnet in the rocky dells, The moor-lark in the air, The bee among the heather bells That hide my lady fair" Emily Bronte (1844) #photography #linnet #BirdPhotography #PotD #poetry #EmilyBronte #heather #ling #IsleOfIona #Columba'sBay

"Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean." Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1834) #photography #ship #schooner #seascape #mist #PotD #poetry #Coleridge #ocean #GhostShip

"the cows are benevolent and full of flies. wilderness needs to make its case against nature romanticization." Laura Mota-Juang (2022) #photography #cow #flies #eye #Macro #PotD #poetry #Mota-Juang #nature #FarmAnimals

"a big bulk and a roar to be really scared of, a trampling, and a clanking tense with the chain’s jerk. His eyes swivelled in the great wedge of his tossed head. He roared his rage. His nostrils gaped like wounds." Liz Lochhead (1972) #photography #cow #PotD #poetry #Lochhead #IsleOfIona #Abbey

" he hesitantly lowers himself into the water. It gently receives him, and, gladly yielding, flows back beneath him, as wave follows wave, while he, now wholly serene and sure, with regal composure, allows himself to glide." Rainer Rilke (1906) #photography #swan #PotD #poetry #Rilke #reflection

"Her conscious tail her joy declared; The fair round face, the snowy beard, The velvet of her paws, Her coat, that with the tortoise vies, Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes, She saw; and purred applause." Thomas Gray (1747) #photography #cat #portrait #PotD #poetry #ThomasGray #tabby #pets

"Thou sing’st alone on the bare wintry bough, As if Spring with its leaves were around thee now; And its voice that was heard in the laughing rill, And the breeze as it whispered o’er meadow and hill" Jones Very (1843) #photography #BlueTit #bird #PotD #poetry #JonesVery #tree #branches #lattice

"From where I stand the sheep stand still As stones against the stony hill. The stones are gray And so are they. And both are weatherworn and round" Robert Francis (1936) #photography #sheep #horns #ram #PotD #poetry #RobertFrancis #Glencoe #Scotland #Blackface #Highlands

"Then, how the Fire ebbs like Billows— Touching all the Grass With a departing—Sapphire—feature— As a Duchess passed—" Emily Dickinson (1860) #photography #sunset #golden #sun #fire #silhouette #skyline #PotD #poetry #Dickinson #twilight

"Thy golden Light came down into my brain   And the grey rooms of mind sun-touched became A bright reply to Wisdom's occult plane,   A calm illumination and a flame." Sri Aurobindo (1938) #photgraphy #sunset #golden #reflection #silhouette #PotD #poetry #Aurobundo #yoga #spiritual

"Thy golden Light came down into my brain   And the grey rooms of mind sun-touched became A bright reply to Wisdom's occult plane,   A calm illumination and a flame." Sri Aurobindo (1938) #photgraphy #sunset #golden #reflection #silhouette #PotD #poetry #Aurobundo #yoga #spiritual

"You were the future once, not long ago. Your sterile walls of concrete, brick, and glass Outlined in steel, and jutting angles show Scorn for the forms you thought you could surpass." Adam Sedia (2024) #photography #architecture #PotD #poetry #Sedia #V&A #Dundee #reflection #modern #concrete

"Lord, how can man preach thy eternal word? He is a brittle crazy glass; Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford This glorious and transcendent place, To be a window, through thy grace." George Herbert (~1630) #photography #StMartinInTheFields #PotD #poetry #Herbert #London #window #StainedGlass

"Here, I that stood in On beside the flow Of sacred Nile, three thousand years ago! . . . I have seen the four great empires disappear. I was when London was not. I am here." Alfred Tennyson (1877) #photography #CleopatrasNeedle #London #PotD #poetry #Tennyson #silhouette #plunder #Empire

"And then there was no more Empire all of a sudden. Its victories were air, its dominions dirt: Burma, Canada, Egypt, Africa, India, the Sudan. The map that had seeped its stain on a schoolboy’s shirt . . " Derek Walcott (2010) #photography #Westminster #PotD #poetry #Walcott #Empire #sunset

"inevitably as the Great Wheel in its return, (a descent first through summer's golden leaves and then bare ruined branches), the Great Wheel turning & returning." Paul Mariani (1996) #photography #LondonEye #GreatWheel #poetry #Mariani #silhouette #PotD #trees #branches #network

"when leafless trees become their silhouettes and empty nests tend to stand out like mashed clots in a fine mesh of capillaries or ink blots in failed calligraphy" Jason Guriel (2009) #photography #silhouette #trees #clouds #PotD #poetry #JasonGuriel #patterns #networks #BlackAndWhite

“Out in the lonely tree A bird is calling, calling. Slowly over the earth The wings of night are falling; My heart like the bird in the tree Is calling, calling, calling.” Sarah Teasdale (1915) #photography #silhouette #PotD #birds #poetry #Teasdale #church #twilight #tree #BlackAndWhite

"Regard the capture here, O Janus-faced, As double as the hands that twist this glass. Such eyes at search or rest you cannot see; Reciting pain or glee, how can you bear!" Hart Crane (1926) #photography #crane #glass #reflection #construction #skyscraper #BlackAndWhite #PotD #poetry

"So there I'll finish up my time A stranger unto strife. And smoke my pipe and sit aloof From care by miles and miles, Sagaciously beneath a roof, Geranium-gay and panic proof, Of ruby tinted tiles." Robert Service (2003) #photography #Crail #ShoreGate #PotD #poetry #Service #EastNeuk #Fife

"Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light." Dylan Thomas (1947) #photography #sunset #Crail #RoomeBay #Fife #Scotland #poetry #DylanThomas #clouds #sunlight #shadows #drama #FirthOfForth #PotD

"How richly glows the water’s breast Before us, tinged with evening hues, While, facing thus the crimson west, The boat her silent course pursues!" William Wordsworth (1789) #photography #yacht #reflection #PotD #poetry #Wordsworth #waves #ripples #shadows

"Bring me the sunset in a cup Reckon the morning's flagons up And say how many Dew Tell me how far the morning leaps Tell me what time the weaver sleeps Who spun the breadth of blue!" Emily Dickenson (1893) #photography #sunset #PotD #poetry #Dickenson #silhouette #tree #clouds #drama

“Echo the great beasts that work among us unbridled in this kingdom between canal and firth here to harness the river and carry each weary traveller Bow down your strong heads to taste the water Stretch up your long necks to face the sun” Jim Carruth (2013) #photography #Kelpies #Carruth #Falkirk

“With draped manes and tilted hind-hooves, Making no sound. I passed: not one snorted or jerked its head. Grey silent fragments Of a grey still world.” Ted Hughes (1957) #photography #Kelpies #horses #PotD #sculpture #poetry #TedHughes #Falkirk #Scotland #AndyScott #神奇铁马

“Time is Too Slow for those who Wait, Too Swift for those who Fear, Too Long for those who Grieve, Too Short for those who Rejoice; But for those who Love, Time is not.” Henry J Van Dyke Jr (1904) #photography #sundial #LochAwe #PotD #poetry #VanDyke #Highlands #StConan #sky #loch

“The light shining in a dark place but you don’t know when the tunnel ends! Dawn after night keeps coming back. The ground we walk finding the path A spiritual awakening. The reason to go on in life.” (ed.) Kathleen Jamie (2022) #photography #Independence #Scotland #PotD #Hope #change

“Moments of great calm, Kneeling before an altar Of wood in a stone church In summer, waiting for the God To speak; the air a staircase For silence;” R.S.Thomas (1968) #photograph #StConan #Church #Chapel #LochAwe #Scotland #cross #PotD #poetry #RSThomas #Highlands #Campbell #ClanCampbell

“A Spider sewed at Night Without a Light Upon an Arc of White. If Ruff it was of Dame Or Shroud of Gnome Himself himself inform. Of Immortality His Strategy Was Physiognomy.” Emily Dickenson (1865) #photography #spiderweb #PotD #poetry #EmilyDickenson #pillar #arches #windows

“Oh whence do you come, my dear friend, to me, With your golden hair all fallen below your knee, And your face as white as snowdrops on the lea, And your voice as hollow as the hollow sea?” Christina Rossetti (1863) #photography #ghost #window #poetry #Rossetti #PotD #BridgeOfAllan #haunted

“O Arches! be strong to uphold him, and bear him across to the city, The beautiful city whose spires still glow with the fires of sunset!” Amy Lowell (1919) #photography #viaduct #Knaresborough #architecture #engineering #poetry #PotD #AmyLowell #valley #trees #river

The light flows from their branches. And they call again, "It's simple," they say, "and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine." Mary Oliver (2006) #photography #tree #PotD #poetry #MaryOliver #branches #shadow #light #RookeryCafe #Iona

"By now, it should go without saying that what the oven is to the baker and the berry-stained blouse to the dry cleaner, so the window is to the poet." Billy Collins (2005) #photography #PotD #window #framed #poetry #BillyCollins #art #ArgyllHotel #Iona #WindowFrame #DiscoveredArt #plants

“At Oban harbour, peeled prawn sandwiches Sit cheek by jowl with lobsters, fresh from creels Mussels, crabs and oysters, Langoustines (live or cooked) Hang around looking shelly and hard” Sheena Blackhall (2011) #photography #Oban #harbour #Balamory #Scotland #boats #PaintedHouses #PotD

“On a small island, the feeble purchase that the land obtains between the sea and the sky, the drifting of mist and the intensity of light, unsettles the intellect and opens the imagination to larger and more liquid configurations” Thomas A. Clark (1987) #photography #PotD #Iona #mist #sea

“This was beyond: a place where silence spoke - a few fields scattered in between the rocks, a well of water for the quenching of their thirst and beehive cells for shelter come the dark." Kenneth Steven (2014) #photography #HermitCell #PotD #poetry #Steven #IsleOfIona #peace #nature

“the orchid blossoms and I can’t explain why it moves my heart, why such pleasure comes from one small bud on a long spindly stem, one blood red gold flower” Sam Hamill (2018) #photography #orchid #PotD #poetry #Hamill #nature #SpottedOrchid #IsleOfIona #heath #FlowerPhotography

“Rich velvet mosses making a base For the old stone dykes - all glowing In a lustrous jewel-like beauty for the enjoyment of which One might well endure the rigours of winter!” Hugh MacDiarmid (1939) #photography #moss #stones #PotD #poetry #MacDiarmid #forest #ruins #wall #lichen

"From cocoon forth a butterfly As lady from her door Emerged — a summer afternoon — Repairing everywhere — Without design — that I could trace Except to stray abroad On Miscellaneous Enterprise The Clovers understood" Emily Dickinson (1863) #poetry #Dickinson #PotD #butterfly #nature

“The people along the sand All turn and look one way. They turn their back on the land. They look at the sea all day.” Robert Frost (1936) #photography #coastline #shoreline #BlueSky #PapsOfJura #PotD #Poetry #RobertFrost #seascape #WesternIsles #Scotland #islands #sea #beach