Lately I’ve been re-listening to Leonard Cohen…

When I look at this scene, I am unable to decide if the sand is encroaching on the branches and will eventually cover them, or if the branches spend their time escaping the sand and will eventually join their colleagues on the next dune over.

The more I look, the more uncertain I am.

But what does this have to do with Leonard Cohen? Nothing, probably, except that my mind connects photographic confusion and his lyric:

There’s a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it’s written in the scriptures
And it’s not some idle claim
You want it darker, we kill the flame

Paradox. Darker. Flame. Suffering.

White Sands National Park, New Mexico
photographed 12.14.2025