Midnight
a memory, a dream
A moonlit silent scream
Confused, a handful of
tears. We forgot ...
Midnight
a memory, a dream
A moonlit silent scream
Confused, a handful of
tears. We forgot ...
As Clouds Before the Wind
... When she wakes
she lifts the shade, impatient for a glimpse
of flight: a sparrow, a swallowtail—
something with wings she can memorize.
I have the right to fly
To grow, to prosper
The right to be
To raise offspring
Feed you and others
To be fed myself.
Who defends our rights?
...
I lift my gaze to the stars, it doesn’t matter. There’s so much more out there, up there than my tiny, confused self, yet I’m a part of it. Getting lost becomes something wonderful.
...
Always silent, seemingly staring into nothingness
What tales would they know and share?
Intertwined roots, touching branches
How do I listen in, share in their wisdom?
I walked in the woods, on a path I walked
many times before, completely lost in thought
not noticing that darkness was falling, that stars
appeared in the sky, that moonlight
brightened my path. A sound brought me out of my musings...
A special calm comes over the evening when the sun disappears behind the horizon and the light of the day slowly dies. Nature awaits the night, the trees lean against the darkening colors.
I love that intens, quiet moment of the day...
One of the first sunny, warm spring days of this year. It is quiet in the forest, not a breath of wind, no one to be seen. And as I walk deeper into the forest, the young greenery closes me off more and more from the busy world. So I walk on slowly, as if in a dream....
For anyone who devotes to life, who loves the unknown, learns by trial and error, and inspires others by example....
Published today in The Ekphrastic Review, a collaboration with Laura Ann Reed based on -a little bit color adjusted version of- my artwork 'The Yellow Umbrella'.
After a crisp summer night, the first rays of sunlight hit the damp fields. A light haze rises and disappears to the horizon, carried by an emerging summer breeze....
It's a warm winter day, after a few sunny days the fields are gently turning green. A walk early in the morning, the rising sun just rising above the hills. A veil of mist rises from the cold lake, drifting across the fields with a gentle breeze.
Early on a beautiful spring morning I wandered through the fields along the bay Krik Vig, part of the Limfjord. Except for the rustling of the wind and a few birds, it's quiet…
The humid morning air and a fresh sea breeze blend the colors and scents of a beautiful new day.
It's a cold evening at the end of a heavily cloudy, gray winter day. Just before the sun sets, the clouds open up allowing the light for a brief but intense moment to say hello to the night.
A gray, foggy day. A day like so many, where you only see vague outlines of the path you are walking. The silence and lack of sight are oppressive at first. Until you regain peace and confidence, and let the trees guide you.
Do you dream in color? Or in black and white? Or both, or do you not know? Are all people dreaming in different color palettes, or does everyone have her/his own palette?
Some people are always dreaming in color, other's in shades of gray, or both in an irregular variety. Many people are not sure, or hardly remember it.
A search for my color palette, an experiment.
A hazy winter morning in a birch forest near the city of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. It is cold, a pale sun tries to dissipate the cold of the early morning frost.
It is early in the morning, but it is already light when I wake up. The sunlight filtered through the curtains quickly dissipates the last images of my dream. Only vague shadows and colors…
It is cold, the sun does not have enough power to warm the fresh breeze. The trees are still bare, but on many branches the first leaf buds are beginning to unfold.
Early in the morning the light penetrates into the darkest corners of the forest. After every night, a new day arrives…
A bright white light? Eternal darkness?
It is my conviction that after our death our spirit, our soul, travels to its origin somewhere in the universe. Once arrived, our energy is reunited with the energy from which everything around us once originated.
The sun sets under a heavily clouded sky, and for a brief moment shines over a slightly frozen Limfjord near the village of Amtoft, North Jutland, Denmark.
Light. Hidden
behind a veil of silence
of the fading darkness
Celebrate this new day
Every day
The past year for us has been about tearing down, and rebuilding. Demolishing what was rotten or no longer served us, and considering what we wanted to keep and perhaps reuse.
Musing trees in morning mist,
the new day hesitates and knows
they lose themselves in memories
It's still early in the quiet foggy forest. The new day seems to hesitate to start, so as not to disturb the trees at their musing.
It is still dark, very cold and quiet, this early morning in the lightly snow-covered forest. But then the sun rises, the light plays with the frozen branches of the fir trees...
It's early on a cold, dark winter morning. At dusk, everything seems to be the colour blue. Then the sun rises, coloring the world in an amazing palette.
Just before the sun sets, the clouds open up allowing the light for a brief but intense moment to say hello to the night...
Early in the morning in a forest near the city of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. It is cold, but the autumn sun warms everything it touches.
I love Fado music and, more in general, Portuguese folk music.
One of the most beautiful Portuguese songs for me is Meu Alentejo sung by Dulce Pontes.
But even without knowing a translation of the lyrics (and I don't speak a word of Portuguese), this song really touched me the first time I heard it. And it still does...
A dark evening in a city where it is raining briskly. The street is almost deserted, shopkeepers have just turned out the lights and closed their stores. Two people are walking down the street talking and laughing under a yellow umbrella. I feel a strange desire to know what the two are laughing about....
The sun has set, the water of the fjord rapidly takes on the cold color of the night. Thin cloud veils seem to swallow up the colors of the sunset, until it's dark.
An unexpected snowstorm blinds us
Even as we squint into the sunlight
Blinded, shivering, caught in the brightness
Turning away from its fierce glare
The burning, live-giving light
The soft, chilling snow
Flirting, sparkling, fluttering
...
After many days of rain, the late afternoon sun shines almost horizontally through the damp forest. It is quiet, except for a soft rustling, a song of the last leaves of the trees…
On a beautiful morning I wandered through the fields along the bay Krik Vig, part of the Limfjord. Except for the rustling of the wind and a single bird, it's quiet…
While I was trying to photograph a bright sunset before the sun was completely below the horizon, I realized that the beauty of light is often determined by how it is filtered, veiled or scattered.
"The ability to imagine how a country, society, industry, etc. could develop in the future..."
Here on earth the light is always filtered by something. The atmosphere, clouds, a canopy, mist…
In fact, all these ‘filters’ make the sunlight much more visible, almost touchable…
An artwork that I made on the occasion of the exhibition 'El Duende' in 2017. I made two series of photos in the mountains near Bellano, Italy. When making those series, the theme of the exhibition inspired me. I went looking for the spirit of mountains and valleys.
'Sad Songs' is a new artwork in my collection 'Secret Places'. It is inspired by the recent fruitless attempts by world leaders to arrive at decisive measures, humane financial compensation and quick actions to combat the earth crisis.
It's early in the morning. The first sunlight touches the moss between the trees. And as if the forest had been waiting for it, immediately the most wonderful scents rise up and mingle with the nightly smell of thawing leaves and wood.
Spring. A gentle breeze takes the petals of fading cherry blossoms into the light. Although still far away, or perhaps just because, a new version of this artwork.
Yesterday the first version of this artwork, it went wrong again with the ability to comment, so grab your chance at this new, digitally transformed version 😉
"You white men are lost. You don't understand the land. Too many silly questions.
Your presence on this earth will come to an end.
It's low tide, the bottom of the fjord becomes visible. The waves have left their marks, like every intense event in life...
A special calm comes over the evening when the sun begins to disappear behind the horizon and the light of the day fades away. Nature awaits the night.
I love that quiet moment of the day and the scents that announces the coming of night.
Early in the morning, it's quiet after a night full of mysterious sounds. Suddenly the first sunlight hits the tops of the pine trees, the forest awakes.
A walk in the forest early on an autumn morning. Do you know that wonderful scent of moist autumn leaves that are heated by a shower of sunlight?
A wonderful sunset briefly colors the sky intens red in many shades. Soon after, it is dark. The day is over. A beautiful ode to autumn…
It is cold in the darkening forest, the late afternoon sun yet makes an attempt to warm the trunks of the trees...
A warm day early in the summer, it is windless. The dense foliage filters the sunlight. Birds sing, but are invisible in the golden-green light.
Some people dream in color, other's in black and white. Many people are not sure, or hardly remember their dreams. I am quite sure I sometimes dream in surrealistic color palettes and atmospheres. But as far as I remember, my dreams are always multicolored...
It is a stormy autumn day when, during a short vacation on Schiermonnikoog, we decide to make a beach walk. Schiermonnikoog is one of the Wadden Islands on the north coast of the Netherlands.
When Kari Trenten sent me a poem and asked me if it inspired me to make an artwork, I immediately had a vision...
This is the result...
Sickness, loss, violence, life-threatening circumstances, dying.... There are many moments in a person's life when she/he is held captive in icy darkness.
But whatever you believe in, ultimately there is the embrace and oneness with the light of your origin.
A walk on a rain-soaked path along a canal on a winter evening. It's getting dark, time to go home...
The days of cold autumn rain. Looking out over drowned fields, ten years ago in the province of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Autumn is a beautiful time, a time when nature tenderly covers the fallen seeds with brown and vibrant colored leaves. Food for the new growing season...
A gray, foggy autumn day. A day like so many, where you only see vague outlines of the path you are walking. The silence and lack of sight are oppressive at first...
Early in the morning after a rainy and windy autumn night. The first light of the rising sun lovingly embraces nature's awakening...
While the ice caps are melting and the oceans and seas are warming and being robbed, polluted and poisoned, also on land the humans leave a trace of destruction. Or perhaps better to say, that's where the misery begins. Because that's where humans have settled and do most of their 'ingenuity'.
The Western world should really be called the 'world of never enough'.
A weekend read...
A morning by the sea, the water is called back by the tide, bringing the beach back to the land. Thousands of waves, as far as the eye can see, weave together like an infinite blue sheet...
Many people dream of an earth that is safe and clean, that is treated with care so that it can give enough to all that lives on it without becoming exhausted.
Only when all those dreams come to life in common sense and people take action to live modestly as a part of nature, the earth can recover through our care and compassion for all that lives, giving us what we need.
As Clouds Before the Wind
... When she wakes
she lifts the shade, impatient for a glimpse
of flight: a sparrow, a swallowtail—
something with wings she can memorize.
Early on this beautiful autumn morning, a walk takes me down deserted narrow paths. I stop, look at the light spot at the end of the path and enjoy the warmth of the rising sun.
Everything in a swamp seems thinner, fragile almost, untouchable….
At the same time, it is not difficult to feel part of the landscape. The silence absorbs you, the mists make you feel like you are floating above the water.
So getting lost in the pale light is very easy when you stroll around for a few hours...
Reflections Of Life
Sitting alone near the pond
seeing the day fade
All things are reflections,
distorted by our mind
Only the heart sees pure
Only body and soul tell what’s right
A heavy rain storm just passed the Flade Sø, a lake directly behind the dunes of the North Sea and part of the Nationalpark Thy...
A morning by the sea, the water is called back by the tide, bringing the beach back to the land. Thousands of waves, as far as the eye can see, weave together like an infinite velvet sheet.
Whether it is a cloudy or sunny day, open spaces in a forest have something magical about them. And the denser the forest, the greater the magic when you suddenly find yourself in a place where an abundance of light welcomes you.
It was a beautiful winter day for a long walk.
As we approached the edge, the sunlight displaced the darkness of the dense spruce forest...
Golden wings of light move slowly through the cold evening air, bringing the last light of the day into the darkening forest....
August 17, 2024 — Comments are off for this post.
Longing for that morning
I remember the garden
where I used to walk
Alone among the flowers
as the sun rose
into a long summer day
A walk through a flower garden, early on a summer morning....
It's still dim when I wake up. I get out, I can't stay in bed. For a moment I go outside, it is cold. I enjoy the quiet first hours of the day.
Then you wake up. Your hand touches me, a warm embrace, a kiss. The day begins.
Just as I sometimes dream of spring or summer while it is still winter, I also sometimes dream of winter on a warm summer day.
It is a kind of vague longing for peace and quiet, for moments of reflection. Summer is a hectic time of blooming, ripening, harvesting, processing and making ready for storage...
There is nothing like an early morning walk in nature, where you get to witness the awakening of that piece of earth. The light, the smells, the sounds, the cool breeze caressing your skin….
What sense are we missing right now? Oh yes, of course…
A sunny, warm spring day. It is quiet in the forest, not a breath of wind, no one to be seen. As I walk deeper into the forest, the young greenery closes me off more and more from the busy world. I walk on slowly, as if in a dream...
I sit on a stone,
on the east side of the pond
Staring at the water,
waiting.
Nobody understands why
All I want is to see how
the setting sun colors the flowers
in the ripples
of a summer breeze.
Weeping pine tree –
Blue rain falling to earth,
mixed tears of happiness.
Weeping pine tree - A pine tree on a sunny winter day, the sunlight brings tears of happiness, but mixed feelings because of the declining state of nature.
It is early morning on a beautiful, sunny but damp spring day. Sunlight warms the forest floor, patches of fog rise. The trees seem to be moving, appearing out of the mist, as if they are gathering for their morning meeting.
Reaching into the highest worlds,
drinking from the three wells
Yggdrasil, from Old Norse Yggdrasill, is an immense mythical tree that connects the nine worlds in Norse cosmology.
An immense ash tree that is center to the cosmos and considered very holy. The gods go to Yggdrasil daily to assemble at their things.
Longing for that morning
I remember the garden
where I used to walk
Alone among the flowers
as the sun rose
into a long summer day
It is early one summer morning, I am walking through our forest garden. The first sunlight awakens the flowers, they open their petals and show their vibrant colors. Musing, I pause for a moment among the ornamental onions. Is it a memory or a dream?
Endless Road - A dark, gray and rainy day in June. It is beginning to get dark and the wind is finally abating. A curtain of rain obscures the view. But I know this road, I know we're almost home.
Longing for that morning
I remember the garden
where I used to walk
Alone among the flowers
as the sun rose
into a long summer day
A walk through a flower garden, early on a summer morning. Musing amidst the allium, is it a memory, or a dream?
July 3, 2024 — Comments are off for this post.
Silent forest
A tree hums
Dark sound
Forests often have an enchanting atmosphere. The murmur of leaves enhances the silence, the dim light hides a lot of details... At the same time, scarce light can give objects a different, mysterious form. And a creaking branch will make you look around to discover...
June 29, 2024 — Comments are off for this post.
In the rhythm of our wings...
Soulmates... Fellow travellers on our journey of life, helping to grow beyond the horizons of our individual selves.
It is nice to have a soulmate, a privilege. But not a given, nor conditional for a happy life.
June 28, 2024 — Comments are off for this post.
Do you know the sound of green? No? Then listen to the birds in the trees after the rain.
And do you know the scent of green? Take a stroll through a wet spring forest, and you will never forget this wonderful scent.
Some time ago we spent a few days on the beautiful island of Langeland.
On a rainy day we went to the northern half of the island...
My LinkedIn connection Ashok Subramanian posted a review on 4 poems, with my poem Lost In Moonlight among them:
I walked in the woods, on a path I walked
many times before, completely lost in thought,
not noticing that darkness was falling, that stars
...
Tangled Trees
Trees tangled
together in green
A lonely road,
deep
into the woods
Shelter for the cold
May rain
A dark, chilly and rainy day in May. At some point the rain comes pouring down. But luckily, a beautiful lane with a tightly tangled canopy of leaves provides shelter.
The previous owner of our house had a huge fondness for rhododendrons. So we have them in many shapes and sizes. And we love the poisonous tea that comes from it 🙂
Did you know that oceans and seas are so polluted with PFAS (forever chemicals), plastics, pesticides and other poisons that you cannot breathe clean air on any coast?
Nowhere.
The “spray” from the waves is seriously polluted... Add to that the incalculable amount of crap in the air everywhere on earth....
A sunny, warm spring day. It is quiet in the forest, not a breath of wind, no one to be seen. As I walk deeper into the forest, the young greenery closes me off more and more from the busy world. I walk on slowly, as if in a dream...
Autumn Fire
Cold trees lean against the morning sun,
full of longing.
Light swirls around the fading leaves,
a rustling autumn fire.
Early in the morning in a forest near the city of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. It is cold, but the autumn sun warms everything it touches.
Sketched By Cherry's Light
Spring rain passed
A cherry tree in bloom
Sketched by morning light
Sketched By Light is a series of photos...
A bright morning arrives fresh and new
Pine trees lean toward the first kiss of light
We walk together among the trees
as the sun climbs into a warm spring day
A special calm comes over the evening when the sun disappears behind the horizon and the light of the day slowly dies. Nature awaits the night, the trees lean against the darkening colors.
I love that intens, quiet moment of the day...
Midnight
a memory, a dream
A moonlit silent scream
Confused, a handful of
tears. We forgot ...
I love those fresh, quiet spring days, where the sea still reflects the colors of winter, and the sun colors the sky in the shades of summer....
Crying Pine Tree
Crying pine tree –
Blue rain falling to earth,
mixed tears of happiness.
It is based on a photograph I made on a walk on a bright sunny day on the threshold of spring, in nature park Lövö, a beautiful fairy tale like peninsula on the Baltic coast in the Kalmar region, Sweden.
It was one of those typical windy Danish late summer days. Fierce rain showers passed over all day, alternating with brief moments of sunshine. On the beach, you could see the showers coming from afar, especially when they were shone upon by the setting sun.
Lost In Thought
I walked in the woods, on a path I walked
many times before, completely lost in thought
not noticing that darkness was falling, that stars
appeared in the sky, that moonlight
brightened my path. A sound brought me out of my musings...
Do you dream in color? Or in black and white? Or both, or do you not know? Are all people dreaming in different color palettes, or does everyone have her/his own palette?
Some people are always dreaming in color, other's in shades of gray, or both in an irregular variety. Many people are not sure, or hardly remember it.
A search for my color palette, an experiment.
Want to inquire about an art piece?
All content © 2014-2025 Jacob Berghoef (Jaap Berghoef)