DEEP BLUE COSMOS II:
THE MYSTIC BLUE
Come free dive with me...
Following from Deep Blue Cosmos I, a visual exploration of the similarities between the abyss and outer space, we are now on our way to the stars where new vistas open up to our gaze.
We look in awe and wonder as strange new forms, undoubtedly mineral and yet strongly reminiscent of organic structures, flash past us in a dizzying, ephemeral dance of rapid and ceaseless mutations; we safely traverse asteroid belts where rocks, part crystal and part quicksilver, fly away from us at vertiginous speeds, only to evaporate into the light; and we occasionally witness rapidly flying sparks bouncing off the mirror-like surface of a sleek, dome-shaped space object.
On all sides we are assailed by "new sparks of wonder opening in surprise" (The Mystic Blue by D.H. Lawrence), as we are headed ever farther, ever deeper towards the light.
The Mystic Blue
Out of the darkness, fretted sometimes in its sleeping,
Jets of sparks in fountains of blue come leaping
To sight, revealing a secret, numberless secrets keeping.
Sometimes the darkness trapped within a wheel
Runs into speed like a dream, the blue of the steel
Showing the rocking darkness now a-reel.
And out of the invisible, streams of bright blue drops
Rain from the showery heavens, and bright blue crops
Surge from the under-dark to their ladder-tops.
And all the manifold blue and joyous eyes,
The rainbow arching over in the skies,
New sparks of wonder opening in surprise.
All these pure things come foam and spray of the sea
Of Darkness abundant, which shaken mysteriously,
Breaks into dazzle of living, as dolphins that leap from the sea
Of midnight shake it to fire, so the secret of death we see.
Jets of sparks in fountains of blue come leaping
To sight, revealing a secret, numberless secrets keeping.
Sometimes the darkness trapped within a wheel
Runs into speed like a dream, the blue of the steel
Showing the rocking darkness now a-reel.
And out of the invisible, streams of bright blue drops
Rain from the showery heavens, and bright blue crops
Surge from the under-dark to their ladder-tops.
And all the manifold blue and joyous eyes,
The rainbow arching over in the skies,
New sparks of wonder opening in surprise.
All these pure things come foam and spray of the sea
Of Darkness abundant, which shaken mysteriously,
Breaks into dazzle of living, as dolphins that leap from the sea
Of midnight shake it to fire, so the secret of death we see.
D.H. Lawrence (1880-1930)
Deepest thanks to Paula Marvelly, creator and Editor of The Culturium, for introducing me to the poem that, unbeknownst to me, provided the inspiration for the images.
*** PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris 2020 | HonorabIe Mention | Nature | Underwater ***
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