The Sacred Isle Series
"Trembling I sit day and night, my friends are astonish'd at me.
Yet they forgive my wanderings, I rest not from my great task!
To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal Eyes
Of Man inwards into the Worlds of Thought: into Eternity".
Verse excerpt from the work "Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion" by William Blake.
Written 1804-1820, with later additions.
When I looked back over this series of images taken in March 2022, I originally thought that there might be a few images that might spark my imagination enough to enable me to write some poems about my time there that evening. But when I started to sort through them I realised that there was enough material to form a series. The works could be seen separately but once I started to work on them it was as though the emotional content kept building to create a body of work that was meant to be together.
Each piece would add to the other, becoming more than itself, or so it seemed to me. As I viewed the selection of images I realised the beauty of this location was speaking to me but in such a way that the themes became universal, an exploration of our place in this world, in this cosmos. Our lives are not just personal experiences, they become enacted out on this mighty stage of creation, where this landscape started to reveal an eternal story of us all.
These images were taken on a beautiful evening in March, on my way home from another location. This winding road in East Sussex in the UK has always been a beautiful way home for me, calming my mind before I get to my final destination. But the 'shortcut' often ends up being longer than the original session I went for at a different location! The views along this road are so captivating and on this particular day, the sunset was extraordinary.
I stop the car in various favoured spots I know and I wait. The rewards are often the ones where you think there is not enough light to even take the shot, and it could be said that these types of shots are indeed, a gift from the universe.
I hope you enjoy this series as I decided to place this on a separate page. Gradually I will add to this series from the session of photographs I took that evening.
Ab Aeterno
Heaven On Earth
Heaven On Earth
Do not wait for heaven
For it is all around you all the time
Many cannot see it
Their eyes are hooded
And their minds closed down
Heaven is not behind a secret veil
You are living in it
Paradise is laid out before you
If you would only release your bindings
And let the truth shine now
Open your awareness
Allow yourself to see
That this earth is full of heaven
Layers of beauty weaved together
With gold and silver threads
Creating glory
Just for you and me
Photography and Poetry
By Shelley Turner
Archangel
Dedicated to the Reverend Roger Leslie
With fondest affection and deepest gratitude
Photography and Poetry
By Shelley Turner
Archangel
You asked me
What would it be like to meet an Archangel
One of God's Warriors
And I wondered would we survive the experience
Being placed near God's right hand
In the presence of an eternal soldier
Deciding our fate
Maybe with a gesture
An arched eyebrow
An agitated wing span
I suspect there would be an indulgent impatience
Of dealing with lowly creatures
That show repeated defiance
In spite of the infinite patience of their master
It would be easier to smite us into oblivion
But that is not the ultimate plan
One that the Angels have to adhere to
Despite their personal frustration
But occasionally compassion arises
And intervention is not unknown
The path of the universe is a rocky one
There is this element of chance within it
A safety net
In case things come totally undone
A seed may be planted
But what grows might surprise everyone
This is the beauty of creation
Of letting things flow
Despite the bad choices of His earthly children
The Archangels know
His will has to be done
In heaven as well as below
Burning Love
Burning Love
When the Holy Spirit visits
Everything is aflame before your eyes
The bushes still burn
Like they did for Moses
But are not reduced to ash
For they are afire with glory
Of a quite different kind
All of nature is exalted
And it is as if your feet
Do not touch the ground
The air is the song
And you are the notes
The sound is transcendent
An unknown melody
That you want to hear all your life
There is no separate self
You have become pure energy
Part of the covenant of creation
That each of us brings to the story
Of a Genesis reborn and alight
Photography and Poetry
By Shelley Turner