Mystery

“Mystery”  |  Anthony Satori

“A poet’s pleasure is to withhold a little of his meaning, to intensify by mystification.  He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it.”  

— E. B. White

Flower

“Flower”  |  Anthony Satori

Aspire toward simplicity, purity, compassion and beauty.  If you strive for these things in all that you do, you will become a vital conduit for the wondrous nature of the universe.

Blue Dusk

“Blue Dusk”  |  Anthony Satori

“The ocean with its vastness, its blue green, / Its ships, its rocks, its caves, its hopes, its fears, / Its voice mysterious, which whoso hears / Must think on what will be, and what has been, / But what, without the thought of thee… Would be the wonders of the sky and sea?” — Keats

It is love that gives life meaning.  The love of family, the love of friends, the mutual romantic love of another heart.   Without these things, even the most subtle wonders of life can become like hollow sounds echoing off the walls of an empty chamber… resonant, but solitary.  When there is love in one’s life, however, these vibrations do not dissipate, but rather multiply and deepen… transforming into harmony, energy, music.  Take the time to nurture the loving relationships in your life, and the enrichment of everything else will follow.

Other Spirits

“Woman Walking on Stone Pathway (Bellagio, Italy)”  |  Anthony Satori

Not long ago, I visited a small lake-side town in northern Italy called Bellagio.  On an early morning stroll, I took a photograph of the rising sun washing over a stone pathway that weaved upward from the main promenade.  As I took the picture, I was struck by how this small road had surely remained essentially unchanged for years, decades, even centuries, and I was inspired by the wonder and romance of this notion.

Not long after returning to the States, I came across a relatively obscure collection of photographs taken by one of the most influential pioneers of photography from the early 20th Century, Alfred Stieglitz.  I already knew a fair amount about Stieglitz’ life and work as an early champion of photography as a legitimate medium of creative expression; however, these particular pictures had somehow escaped my experience up until now, perhaps because they were taken before he ever opened his first gallery, even before he moved to New York.

As I was enjoying the discovery of these remarkable early photographs, I ran across a particular image that caught my eye.  It was a picture that Stieglitz took of a small cobblestone pathway in a tiny lake-side town in northern Italy.  The photograph was titled, “A Road in Bellagio, 1894.”  I was amazed.  Here, over a hundred years before my having explored this small village and having taken a photograph expressing my awe at its beauty and timelessness, Stieglitz himself had walked along this very same cobblestone promenade and felt the very same creative impulse to capture an image of a small road weaving upward from its edge.  It is wonderful how art has the ability to connect us with other spirits, even over the centuries.

Here, then, are both of the images.  The image on the left is the photograph taken by me.  The image on the right is Alfred Stieglitz’ photograph, taken in 1894.

Reference to the Soul

“Two Horses”  |  Anthony Satori

“I will not make a poem nor the least part of a poem but has reference to the soul.  Because having look’d at the objects of the universe, I feel there is no one nor any particle of one but has reference to the soul.” 

— Walt Whitman

O Night, O Sweetest Time

“Blackfriars Bridge at Night (London)”  |  Anthony Satori

“O night, O sweetest time, though dark of hue, with peace you force all restless work to end.  Those who exalt you see and understand, and he is sound of mind who honors you.  You send to this low sphere the dreams where we ascend up to the highest.”

— Michelangelo

Porcelain

“Porcelain”  |  (Pretty Girls, pg. 78)  |  Anthony Satori

“In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence.”

— Khalil Gibran

Days of Wine and Sunshine

“Days of Wine and Sunshine”  |  Anthony Satori

“My joys here are great, because they are very simple and spring from the everlasting elements: the pure air, the sun, the sea and the wheaten loaf.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

Amber Droplet

“Amber Droplet”  |  Anthony Satori

“God is shown to me no more fully than in some lovely mortal veil.  My eyes that ever long for lovely things, my soul that seeks salvation, cannot rise to heaven unless they fix their gaze on beauty, for they have no other wings.”

— Michelangelo