Verbal Description
A portrait image
The mid-section of a single tree is lit up, contrasting sharply against a black night sky. The trunk extends vertically in the center of the image. Leaves are absent from the Maple’s limbs as they reach up, and to the right and left from their connecting points along the length of the trunk. They appear in varying degrees of light, seeming brighter in the foreground and fading as they round the back of the tree into the darkness. Details of the textured brown-gray bark are also visible to varying degrees, coinciding with the presence or absence of light. The ridges along the trunk’s bark are evident for most of its length, blending into the relative darkness near the top of the image.
A limb near the front of the tree looks especially bright as it reaches up and out and then splits into a V, the right branch veering off the right edge of the photo. The left side of the V extends almost vertically and splits a second time before the top left corner. Smaller webs of branches connect throughout the limbs. They lighten and dim without obvious reason, matching the tones of the larger limbs, creating a splendid pattern of illuminated intricacies amidst the darkness.
Things aren’t always as they appear,
And words can never adequately express
The way things actually are
In dimensions beyond time and space
But words are what I have to offer
And maybe in another dimension
The words give form to the formless
And become a prayer
As they stand in contrast with the dark.
Their sharp edges push the edge of distinction
And illuminate intricacies in the everyday
So that the mundane might appear before us
As a profound expression of Majesty
Summoning the formless within
And leaves us speechless, for once,
As we fall to our knees in reverence
Suddenly feeling the exquisite prayer
Spoken through the essence
in our ever-beating hearts.
