The World Is Too Much With Us

by William Wordsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

All We See in Nature by Lesley Morgan

I am a retired art educator and avid traveler. I graduated with a degree in art from Smith College ages ago and continued my studies at the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston and Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA. For many years, I worked in watercolor and participated in Copley Society exhibitions at their Newbury Street gallery and through their corporate program. My work has also been exhibited at group shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art, multiple North Shore artist societies, Canterbury Village, the NH Institute of Art Biennial, and the NH Artists Association.

My current focus is on street photography, especially when traveling, because it allows me to create a visual journal of my daily experiences. Done right, it also affords lovely interactions with strangers and can record some remarkable phenomenon that escape the naked, roving, picture-composing eye. I feel blessed when my photos reveal the unlikely, seemingly impossible aspects of life we barely see. A recent photo of a Dervish outside Dubai reveals the steady mystical gaze of his inward-facing psyche, while his voluminous, twirling skirt is in full, fast 360° rotation, his hands are a blur, one leg faces forward and the other is turned backwards. A photo of a Laotian woman making coffee at a sidewalk café reveals the stacked, skeletal faces of hungry ghosts pressing in at the perimeter. The neon-illuminated faces of three small boys in an amusement park bumper car reveal concentration, consternation and mild panic. Frequently, I photograph a person on a cell phone in the middle of an archaic scene or ancient historical site. I find the juxtaposition ironic and jarring. I avoid selfies, because too often our self-absorption blinds us to what is really going on around us. To paraphrase William Wordsworth: Our cameras are too much with us… *

Which brings me to my involvement with Alnoba. Alnoba is a privately held, 600-acre preserve in Kensington, NH, that is home to the Alnoba Foundation and Pinnacle Leadership. Founded by Alan and Harriet Lewis, Alnoba focuses on four pillars of work: developing strong leaders for stronger communities; conservation and sustainability; health and wellness; and inspiring reverence for nature by placing art outdoors.

Alnoba’s sculpture collection includes over thirty major works by world-renowned artists like Andy Goldsworthy, Jaume Plensa, Patrick Dougherty, John Lopez, Ernesto Neto, Dewitt Godfrey, Pablo Atchugarry, and the like, which is showcased through regularly scheduled public tours May through October. Last spring, when the call for volunteer docents, aka guides, went out for Alnoba’s initial tour season, I couldn’t sign up quickly enough. Who wouldn’t want to have access to the reflective and stimulating experience of great art in nature? By the fall and by default, I became leader of our docents, a wonderful group of fun, intelligent and generous souls. Our mission is to help others enjoy the presence of fine art in beautiful, natural surroundings. The Lewis family is passionate about social and environmental justice, so we teach a little as we move through the tour and encourage our guests to enter the discussion. Which leads me back Wordsworth’s poem published in 1807:  The World Is Too Much With Us