Walking Harmoniously blog are posts of a photograph and poem that express moments in daily life.  I do not add the poems on the  the photographic image as with a traditional Haiga (maybe a later exploration), but as an expression of the photograph in words. In my exploration I came across haiku, a Japanese poetic form that consists of three lines. Some say a photograph is a haiku in itself, a visual wordless haiku. When I read this, I asked myself, is a written haiku the same a wordless photograph?  

click of a shutter
moment in time
a haiku! 

scratch of a pencil 
a moment in time
a photograph! 

The photography is this blog and the accompanying haiku (and an occasional Haibun) are an expression of moments in daily life.  The click camera, the scratch of pencil, occur when walking to the grocery, too and from work,  walking the dog, around the yard, or just walking.  It is an  exploration of our relationship with nature through photography and poetry. Below are a couple of quotes that best express this.

“R. H. Blythe”
“Poetry is a return to nature: to our own nature, to each thing, and to that of all things.  Of these three, the first is the most difficult for modern man, to go back to the unreasoning, superstitious past, to feel as an animal or how a plant feels…”

“Gary Snyder”
“It is hard to even begin to gauge how much a complication of possessions, the notions of ‘my and mine,’ stand between us and a true, clear, liberated way of seeing the world.  To live lightly on the earth, to be aware and alive, to be free of egotism, to be in contact with plants and animals, starts with concrete acts…”

Please enjoy the blog and photo galleries. 

I invite you to subscribe if you would like to receive a short note when I add a new photo and poem and to share your own expression in the comments section of each post.

Joe Pallen

Joe lives in Pullman Washington with is partner Melissa and their cat “Buddy”. Together, Melissa and Joe enjoy the outdoors. They like to garden and prepare meals from their garden’s generous gifts. They enjoy morning and evening walks in the neighborhood and longer hikes on local trails. Their work in the garden and the daily walks serve as inspiration for the photography and photo-haiku blog, please enjoy.