Fujifilm X-T2, Landscape, Poetry
by Patrick Jennings

Between

After the Storm, Wild Pacific Trail, Ucluelet, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
I am the storm
I am the waves battering the shore
The wind bending the trees

I am the sun
In a merciless sky
Casting heat shimmers on the endless sand

I am the night
Starless, moonless
An impenetrably dark fortress of isolation

I am too the calm
When the air is a puff of fragrant breeze
And birdsong carries for miles

And I am the earth
Fertile and life-giving
The solid ground underfoot

And I am the light
Illuminating the deepest darkness
Connected to all that is and ever will be

I am all these
Though never all at once
And none of them
Though never none at once

Always in flux
Always in a space of conflict
Always in a state of seeking resolution

So there is a time
Between the calm and the storm
Between the sun and the earth
Between the darkness and the light

In transformation
I see myself most clearly
I know myself best
The truth about me
Is found between

Between Storm and Calm
Pacific Wild Trail
Ucluelet
Vancouver Island
British Columbia, Canada

Taken during travels, 2017

It rained and rained, and the wind struck like a cudgel across the sea and onto the land. The waves rose over the shore and drove down upon it, sending spray into the air to be carried inland, coating the coastline in salt mist. The bold came out to feel the earth’s fury, while the timid and the tired cozied up inside with hot drinks and blankets, listening to drops pelleting the roof, and the window panes rattle in the wind.

And then it stopped. The thick grey angry clouds broke, admitting a glimmer of sunlight.

Not yet calm: the trees still shedding rain, the ocean still cloudy with disturbed sediment, sea foam along the tide line still quivering in the breeze, the clouds still dark and threatening.

But, calming. And in the not-yet-calm, the between of transformation, I took this photograph.

Later, there would be words, inspired by the Weekly Photo Challenge, which today is Transformation.