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In a high and lonely desolate windswept place
There is a fence falling down
A fence with no beginning no end
A fence to nowhere
In the middle of a wide open empty space
Wind whistles through rattling slats
One can only wonder
What needed to be divided
In such a vast and boundless realm
No here and no there can bear meaning
Such fences must fall before long
For no free and wild land
Can stand a fence to nowhere forever
Yet while it lives while it lasts
There is something beautiful
About such futile efforts
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A bit of music that could go with this . . .
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42 comments:
I didn't remember Linda Ronstadt sings amazingly well!! And the photos... Won't even comment on them... I love them!!
Hi Lena, you sure slipped in bright and early... I send thank you's from bottom of heart across the fence and over the pond to you... be well... may your cheesecakes be plentiful...
Ah the comment box, where nobody gets fenced in! Great pix, I am always stunned by how you take photos of ordinary things that turn out to be quite extraordinary!
I can imagine you lurching along the fence on your ass taking these photos....:-)(Fiorgive me, my brain is scrambled by having been woken with a magnitude 5.1 this morning)
These are really great - and they're all so different enough from each other too.
But is the grass greener on the other side...?
Great photo. Greetings.
These scenes make me wanna ride a horse! Despite the adage that 'good fences make good neighbors', it ain't always true!
These are beautiful Owen. The terrain, the dark clouds in the sky, the muted tones, and of course the rickety fence to nowhere. I love such "empty" spaces as these that are so full...
All I can say is ... wow. I am transported ...
So I wonder what else was there. And who...
Made me somehow wanting to taste the wood, feeling its strength to remain.
Please have a good weekend.
daily athens
Sister Saj, I was most certainly lurching along there on my ornery ass, leering at all that weathered wood, practically drooling over the textures, the grain, the grey agains golden grass and threatening clouds, though the sinking sun was setting behind me under the clouds, it was gorgeous. My ass wouldn't sit still ! But for crying out loud, how long is all this shaking going to go on ??? Did NZ break free from the sea floor, now is being rocked by every passing whale, or what ???
Hey K... I walked all around it, and still didn't see it all I felt like, but shot it from many angles for sure, will be posting more soon...
Steve, the grass is always greener on the other side, that is an old and time tested optical illusion, which works everywhere except where the grass is golden, which was the case here, and it was equally golden on both sides. (the golden grass was largely due to the drought the area had been having through Spring and early summer, there is finally some rain falling there now... but things were pretty dry when we were there) If you put on your green tinted glasses you could make it look greener over there too...
:-)
Japy, muchas gracias !
Hey Dan... hi ho, Silver, away !!! In this case, there weren't any neighbors, so I guess it wouldn't matter whether the fence was good or not... this one was pretty shaky though, on its last legs. (and it never occurred to me before, but is a neighbor a bore who neighs ?)
Hi Stickup ! I was hoping you might see these, I'm sure you would love the place they were taken. The full-ness of empty... that's it.
PS did you perchance also see the ass in the previous post... honestly, due to the fact that Stevenson went through that area with his ass Modestine, there were a lot of places that rented asses for ass-treks... Hoping all is good with you...
Hi Clytie, funny, being transported was something that happened to criminals and other marginal folks in England when they got sent to Australia a long time back... for some reason that's what your comment made me think of... Anyway, am happy if these transported you into another frame of mind...
Crosby, in that immediate area there was not much of anything else other than a road that goes by, but people have live on that high plain for millenia, there are pre-historic sites nearby... As to who built this fence ? A local told me it was put there to keep snow from drifting on the road in winter, which seems about as plausible as anything else I can imagine. It certainly wasn't there to keep anything in or out, as it only went on for a hundred yards or so... But it seemed poetically beautiful to me, majestic even...
Tag Robert, interesting idea, although I looked at it for a long time from all around, I didn't think to taste it, and the wire holding it together was pretty rusty, probably not a good idea to ingest too much rust... but the wood, I imagine it tasted like wind and smoke and sheep urine all in one...
Your photies keep inspiring me to write. I could possibly fill 500 pages just by looking at this one picture.
A couple of great poems and some really beautiful photos in your last three posts . . .
Jimmy,
I would read every word of it... for your gripping writing never fails to capture my full attention. Thank you good sir, that is very high praise indeed.
Hey Dee,
Hope you're not too sweltering hot there in Tennessee where you are, or at least that you have some water nearby to cool off in. Many, many thanks for these kind words...
Thank you Owen for your enthusiastic words on my blog... I had seen these excellent fence photos already and appreciated them. I am happy the Dark Mountain rung bells for you... and if this fence to nowhere should crop up in a painting, I'll be sure to let you know! :)
Best wishes, and appreciation for your excellent eye as ever :)
Rima
Dear Lynne, you are truly a terrible, terrible punster, a force to be reckoned with, to fence with even... I think I may have to try out for the Olympic team for 2012, after this exercise, I think I'm about ready to fence with the best of them !
Hmmm... "defenceless"... you are bad ! Very bad ! Bad Lynne ! LOL...
Hi Rima ! oh my, I hadn't imagined for a second that you might have already stopped by to this most obscure of unknown blogs in the vast and foggy reaches of blogland, and seen the fence already ... And now I've just noticed that you've very kindly placed a link to the Magic Lantern on the Hermitage page... so I am doubly and triply touched... deepest thanks to you.
La grenouille and I are looking hard at our pennies and vacation time in August to see if a quick trip to Hampshire may be possible around the Dark Mountain Festival... am very tempted... was looking at their website this afternoon, it all sounds incredibly right... Will most certainly be ordering one of their books, especially to have your painting on the cover gracing a space in our home here...
Your fence photos are marvelous and bring back sweet memories of similar fences along our white, powdery , sandy beaches on our Gulf coast.
V
Hi V., I'd love to see those fences along the dunes of the Gulf coast, I'm sure there are some fine ones to find, and perhaps some good Cajun eating to follow an afternoon out riding fences...
Best wishes...
A wonderful reflection on this fence to nowhere and in the middle of nowhere. I have an alternate suggestion for accompanying music; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuMvkNDuOuQ&feature=player_embedded
this is such a wonderful way to take us out into another world, tinged with a sweet melancholia... i love this song so much (though i prefer the Eagles voice). and the images have such emotional intensity, through their subdued colours and their starkness...
Beautiful, so rustic and fine.. Words are also so beautiful. In Finland we have tropical days and nights..so I have been outside almost every second. We have +28 almost whole week and last night even +22.. I wish you happy days Owen ;)
Une clôture qui tente encore de retenir le vent..
Elle finira surement par tomber avec le temps et les grandes terres sauvages pourront de nouveau être réunies..
Voila qui satisfait pleinement mon amour des grands espaces et ce besoin toujours plus présent d'air et de liberté..:o)
Pourquoi l'homme veut il toujours tout enfermer,diviser... étrange rite..
De tres belles images Cher Ami... Ta nouvelle banniere va tres bien..Les couleurs sont superbes ,ce gris et or ...Et comme d'hab le café était délicieux...
Plein d'amitiés et de bises du Sud...A vous Tous...:o)
Mr. Owen,
Love the fence post.
At first I was a little confused with your title "A Fence to Nowhere." Usually it's a bridge or road to nowhere. But a fence? Then I remembered that here in the Great Lakes region we have a "Fence from Somewhere" which is nearly as confusing. It's an underwater electrical fence designed to keep 30 pound flying Asian carp from exiting a Chicago canal and entering Lake Michigan. It cost $20,000 a day to keep it charged. There is a five part series on this in the Detroit News right now if you don't believe everything you read in your comments.
So...Since I know there is obviously a fence from somewhere I must concede the existence of the antithesis, your amazing and unprecedented Fence To Nowhere. It is anti-matter.
Ah Ha! You are changing your header photo! I like that change of blogosophy. Cheers, Springman
La première et la dernière sont vraiment superbes!!! Avec ce ciel chargé et le graphisme des barrières.
Dis, as-tu tenté de les passer en N&B pour voir ce que ça donne???
Bonne soirée Owen
Hey LG, wow, I hadn't come across David Byrne in quite some time... saw him in concert not long after the Talking Heads days, and always loved the movie they did, Stop Making Sense. That's quite an array of faces he put together for this video... more talking heads I guess. Thanks for the link...
Dear Roxana, I suppose the images are a bit infused with the emotion of impending departure, they were on the last day of the trip there, not long before sunset... but then, we've already started saying that it was all so beautiful that we are just going to have to go back there again, and look around some more... no end of places to explore. Ah, and Linda, well as with all art, beauty is in the eye (and ear) of the beholder, and I always had a soft spot for her... but the Eagles are ok with me too... :-)
Elisa, thank you... and wow, with temperatures like that and being outside all the time, you must be getting quite a fine suntan ?
I'm thinking there must be some beautiful old fences in Finland to find...
Ah Clo, there you are...
Et oui, une belle clô-ture pour ton plaisir, pour le plaisir des grandes espaces, qui seront, comme tu dis, bientôt réunies, quand la clôture tombe, et ces landes ne seront plus divisées, ne seront plus clos de clôture... bien que, en fait, cette séparation ne sépare pas grande chose, car elle n'est pas plus qu'une centaine, peut-être 150 mètres de long ; c'était juste mis à cet endroit pour empêcher un peu la neige de faire des grandes congères sur la petite route qui traverse le Causse ...
Et je suis plus que content si ce nouveau en-tête de page te plaît, l'ancienne voiture rose et rouillée est tombée en panne enfin... Bon retour de vacances !
Hey Springman, greetings, when I Googled "fence to nowhere", it comes up with quite a number of references to the fence/wall project along the US-Mexican border... I hadn't heard that term before in that context, I was thinking more in reference to Sarah Palin's "Bridge to Nowhere" fiasco up in Alaska, and just liked the ring of a fence to nowhere. But my goodness, 30 pound flying asian carp ?!? Well I sure hope you can keep them fenced in, sounds like something we don't want to spread. Another species transferred to a non-native habitat ? And yes, it was time I think to change the header photo, that old rusty jalopy was on its last legs... best to you, your bird photos have been simply awesome...
Bonjour Chrys, et merci mille fois... oui, effectivement j'avais déjà commencé des essais en noir et blanc avec cette clôture, il y aura un deuxième billet sur ce sujet très bientôt avec au moins une photo en noir et blanc, les photos sont prêtes à afficher, mais je ne voulais pas passer trop vite derrière ce premier... Bon retour de vacances...
Futile efforts... this reminds of the rabbit-proof fence in Australia. But what a beautiful poem to go with such spirited images.
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