From here you can look out and see nothing or everything. It depends on how you look at it. The only sound you can hear is the rushing water as it
f
a
l
l
s
and pummels the rocks below.
As you descend, the mist from
the falls cleanses you of the stresses of work. Of school. Of computers and
smartphones and Twitter. Of life. It all gets washed away, rushed down the
mountain and away from you.
Refreshed.
Out here things like snakes and spiders,
normally terrifying, are just a part of the scenery. Nothing can touch you
here. The air is cool and breathable. The sun always seems to shine in all the
right places.
The hike down is long. Exhausting. Strenuous. But never miserable. The tiredness doesn’t even hit you until you’re done, and when you get to the bottom you wish there was more.
The
only bad part about this place is that you know you’ll eventually have to
leave. But you never leave completely because a part of you will always be
there.
Out here there are no traffic
jams. No deadlines or special projects. No fights or squabbles.
Out here there
is nothing.
Out here there is everything.
The first photo on this page is of the main waterfall at Amicalola Falls in North Georgia. I took the photo myself while on vacation there. Notice that the word “falls” is literally falling onto the word “rocks,” in the same way that the waterfall itself falls onto to the actual rocks. I tried to form the word in the falling pattern that would be formed by water rushing off of a cliff (as would be viewed from the side). Also note how the picture begins the post in the top-left portion of the page, and then the text eventually makes its way down to the bottom-right portion, which is another attempt to capture the falling pattern. I did this by having the first section of text aligned to the left margin, the middle section centered, and the bottom portion aligned to the right margin. Visually it didn’t quite work out exactly as I had hoped (the movement is not as pronounced as I would have liked), but I think it works well enough. The picture of the leaves in the center of the post is another one that I took while on that same trip. The post begins by stating that at this place, you’ll find everything and nothing, depending on how you look at it. The bold, underline, and italics of “everything” and “nothing” at the end serves to emphasize this point, and also gives the post some symmetry from beginning to end.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the appearance of this blog and how the words played with the overall theme. Not only is the post written well, but how the text is formatted is visually stimulating and is adding to the piece, not just being a part of it. I liked how the word ‘falls’ physically falls down the page. The word refreshed is also bolded which breaks up the passage for the reader. Whereas my blog was pretty lengthy and word heavy, when I look at this one, I understand how a reader might be more compelled to read this one due to the format of the words.
ReplyDeleteI thought the vocabulary and word choice when describing the natural scene was great and really captured the tranquility of the outdoors. For example, I love the sentence, “As you descend, the mist from the falls cleanses you of the stresses of work,” because the vocabulary brings you somewhere and stimulates my senses.
If I could change something about the post, it would be the background of the blog and the images. This blog focuses on the beauty of nature and the outside world away from everything mundane that consumes our lives. I believe the background image could have captured a much more beautiful scene. To me, it is a little bland and does not add much visual stimulation to the blog. The blog’s strongest aspect is by far the poetic placement of the text and the text itself. The text paints a more vivid and beautiful setting than the pictures themselves do and I believe that the pictures could have enhanced the piece more. For some reason the sentence, “Of school. Of computers and smartphones and Twitter. Of life,” is not working for me. I feel that the reader understands what the author means by ‘life’ and what he means when he says ‘life’ is understood. I think the mere mentioning of these social networking devices takes away from the calming feel of the post overall. I really enjoyed this blog and think the author has a great first blog post to continue with.