Thinness

The Irish have a descriptive phrase
   with which a contemplative photographer will resonate:
      “thin places.”
A thin place is anyplace on earth where the veil
   separating the seen world from the unseen world
      is so slender, so permeable, that these two worlds
         can momentarily touch, even overlap.
In such a spot the unseen breaks in upon the seen.
The sacred slips in through the apparently ordinary.
Mahatma Gandhi described it this way:
   “There is an undefinable, mysterious power
      that pervades everything.
   I feel it, though I do not see it.
   It is this unseen power that makes itself felt
      and yet defies all proof,
         because it is so unlike all that I perceive
            through my senses.
   It transcends the senses.”
The fortunate photographer is one who,
   coming upon such places,
      finds a way to position the camera
         quite near that delicate veil.
Then she or he releases the shutter with held breath,
   hoping that a bit of the unseen will filter onto the final image.
It may not.
The transcendent is known to transcend cameras too.