Category Archives: Musing – The Poets Corner

A quick one this morning on living in today.

Here is some verse that I did some time ago. But it still makes sense so up it goes.

Each dawn I wake as fresh laid snow,

My impurities aside, hid ‘neath the mantle.

As spring fed ice, perfect and clear, Brilliant with light

And in the day, many choices, some black, some grey, some white.

To choose wisely, with heart, and mind, and life;

And near dark’s sweet embrace I review them each night.

Where was the wrong? Where was the right?

Which have I learned? Which is my way?

Yet today I have faith. Today I have sight

Each dawn I wake as fresh laid snow,

Perfect and white.

Bc Hannold

This one to me reminds that every day is a new day. It doesn’t matter what happened yesterday. It only matters what I do with today. This means that each morning when I awake I get a fresh start. I get to define today in terms of today, and I don’t have to carry the crushing burdens of yesterday forward.  Using this allows me to continue even in the worst of times, and helps keep me grounded in the best of times. No longer do I have to be a slave to my past.

How about a nice summer Smokies musing

Enough of the cold! This is a summer sunrise shot of the Ocnaluftee Valley from Newfound Gap Road.

Blue Mountain Home

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.


Psalm 23:6 (KJV)


This lofty aerie, from which I gaze;
This harbor in the sky, My haven away,
From which the trials of the day may drain.
Where happiness and joy may reign.
I reflect on time, I can rest unafraid;
Like a soft warm cloak on a winters day;
Warm, and safe, and secure;
And I know I am home.


Bc Hannold

This is the feeling I get when I am in Smokies. All of the trials of the day just to melt away, and life seems to take on a new meaning. Especially when I go to romp, and just take the little camera. It seems to not only lighten the load, it lightens the heart as well. I don’t feel pressured to get that perfect image like I sometimes do on the shooting forays in. Some days I just have to go for the journey.

Still Cold in East Tennessee

But after checking the Mt Leconte winter caretakers blog and seeing that the high there yesterday was -5, I don’t feel bad. Didn’t make it into the park yesterday, and I’ve got too much to get done today, So maybe Friday.

I decided a little sun and sand might help to change the mood a little. This one is called insignificant terns.

Insignificant Terns
Insignificant Terns

Almost anything you do will seem insignificant,
but it is very important that you do it.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Ghandi

As I ponder at dark’s sweet call,
The day’s events I reminisce,
Some good, Some bad, but most – Not at all;
Yet these are my life at the very core;
These which matter most of all.
Bc Hannold

Happy Wednesday!

As long as snow and ice are the theme.

This image is also from the Mawikwe Bay ice caves.

Acceptance and Grace
Acceptance and Grace

For by grace are ye saved through faith;

and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Ephes. 2:8 (KJV)

Ere dawn I wake in faith and renew this Trek,
The trail unknown, yet trust has shown.
I choose not the path of ease or fame,
But accept the path before me.
Bc Hannold

The scripture in this one reminds that grace is a gift, that all I have to do is to accept it. To walk through the door into the light so to speak. The verse at the bottom reminds me that when I wake in the morning and plant my feet on the floor, that is the path I am on that day. While there are many choices throughout the day, at any given moment I am where I am. Where I have come from matters little, it where I am going to that counts.

Time to put Pen to Paper

Figuratively anyway. Time to get some posts up at least.

This is the photograph that got me hooked. Technically not perfect, but the composition just spoke to me. From this point on I was committed to the art. Shot with a fixed lens 5 mp Sony on a frozen section of Lake Superior. George and I are hiking out on the lake to get to the ice caves on Mawikwe Bay. These are sea caves carved out by the waves on Lake Superior. During the winter they become a wonder land of ice falls, ice stalagtites, and other ice formations. Occasionally the lake will freeze over hard enough that you can hike out to them.

Trekking to the Mawiki Ice Caves

Trekking to the Mawikwi Ice Caves

Be sure to call before you go. The National Park Service maintains the trail as part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. The water by the cliffs that you are hiking on can run up to 60′ deep, and as we well know from song, Lake Superior does not up give her dead. You don’t want to push the edge on this one.

Mawikwi Ice Caves

Mawikwi Ice Caves

As the water flows through mineral deposits, different colors appear in the ice created by it.

As the water flows through mineral deposits, different colors appear in the ice.

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