The 100 most recent posts
Peace & Paroxysm - The day ends
Vivid paroxysm of colour
Proximate calm of solitude
Peace besets me
In this dwindling hour of daylight
Content with the cool darkness to come
Breathing the Sea ~ NaPoWriMo 2020 - Sometimes, all I want is the sea
The surf
The gulls
The sand
The wind
The sky
The emptiness of a beyond
Reaching further
Than the distant horizon
But there is no such sea here
So when I want the sea
I draw a slow, very deep
Breath in
Close my eyes
And release
Slowly
The breath
And my presence
Here
Now
Release my presence
Begin to breathe deeply
The Battle - Surly sea assaults the shore
Resilient rock resists the rage
Rooted flora reinforce ramparts
Sinuous salty surf severs stone
Storm abates
Combatants retire
Skies clear
Calm returns
Vows - I stand with you
Side by side
Facing possible storms
Here on the thin edge
Of what was
And what will be
In this now
A future undeniable
A faith unassailable
A love unequivocal
I stand with you
Will you stand with me?
Running ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #226 - In the presence of something
Much greater than I
I run
Not to
Nor from
Just for the pleasure of running
That greater presence makes me
Not lesser
Nor greater
Just aware
That the incoming tides of life
Offer little distraction to the pleasure of a run
When Strangers Become Kin - Among the many magics
Of brandishing a camera
Amongst a crowd of strangers
Is that someone, always
Steps out of the crowd
Offers an intimate glimpse
Into the nature of their being
In that instant of friendship
The camera records a kind of kinship
Which is eternal and universal
I think every photographer must know
We are all much more alike
Than we are different
Breathing - Held down
Smothering smog
Escape delayed
Hours long
Runway clears
Now aloft
Miles high
Above the smog
Crisp blue sky
First in weeks
Smogless air
First I've breathed
Privilege - I remind myself
Often
Even in times like these
Especially in times like these
Just how privileged my life became
By a simple accident of birth
Taps - Subdued
Somnolent sun descends
Asleep before the pillow
Deep sepia blankets
Nightlight on
Sweet dreams
Glimmer ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #225 - I come to
At the shadowy peak
Of surreal darkness
Above a world both familiar
And utterly strange
Shrouded beacon
Reaches into the murk
Whisper of stifled radiance
Beckons
Illuminates
A serpentine road
Beginning and end uncertain
Strike out for the unknown
Keep faith the road reaches the bridge
Hopeful glimmer beyond
Marking Her Presence - In the grand moments
Of golden glories
It is easy to miss
The subtler wonders
Like a small ship
Making her way
Across the gleaming sea
Marking her presence
In the vastness
Something to Watch Over Us - I am grateful to have learned
Beyond any shadow of a doubt
That something greater than I or any one
Watches over us
That there is a purpose to my being
To my existence
Here in this time and place
That I get more than one shot
At finding that purpose
And bringing it to life
Corona - I watch them Photograph them And the vast world Beyond us all Which makes us all seem Such little things I watch them And wonder if they notice me Or if I’d remember them Without […]
Awe ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #224 - Ageless roil
Tide incoming
Hardened shore
I trundle along the escarpment
Of this thin edge of immensity
Immersed in the awe
Of all that I do not yet know
And the greater mystery
Of all that I will never know
Thus is the curse
And the beauty
Of consciousness
Untaken ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #223 - For the artist
Every photograph untaken
Every brush stroke unpainted
Every stanza unwritten
Every story untold
A small darkness left unilluminated
Connections ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #222 - The sun ebbs Drawing the sky blue curtain Infinity revealed Here we draw together To feel the connection Through all that is To each other
Convergence - All that is
Converges on a single point
Where all that is known and imaginable
Exists in the experience and imagination
Of a single sentience
Earth alone
Is home to billions of such convergences
Leading to this gesture of humility:
How can I know this convergence of mine
Is the best of billions
Or even any good at all
Mass ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #221 - Heavier even than Earth
Yet I soar
A majestic dirigible
Laden with history
And regrets
Lofted by hope
And purpose
Levied by love
And compassion
Most days I carry the weight
Lightly, aloft
Some days I cannot leave the berth
Tethered, grounded...
Shoreline ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #220 - Sooner or later
We all come to the shoreline
Beyond which lies a great unknown
A deep, unfathomable darkness
Most of us are allowed a choice there
To dive right in with more or less grace
Or cling to the land against the inexorable tides
No matter the choice, whether or no we have one
We are all, inevitably, drawn down into that great depth
I rather like to think a beautiful light awaits us there
Dig ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #219 - Digging in the sand
Seeking delectable gems
Then steam and butter
tiny ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #218 - How glorious am I
To be just one tiny speck
In all this immensity
Tourists ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #217 - Yea, though I walk
Through this valley of death
I will fear no hardship
Among these many tourists with me
While the road and the cafe comfort me
No shadow falls to Earth
But footfalls
America ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #216 - IN OUR
AMERICA:
ALL PEOPLE ARE EQUAL
LOVE WINS
BLACK LIVES MATTER
IMMIGRANTS & REFUGEES ARE WELCOME
DISABILITIES ARE RESPECTED
WOMEN ARE IN CHARGE OF THEIR BODIES
PEOPLE ARE VALUED OVER PROFIT
DIVERSITY IS CELEBRATED
Point ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #215 - The edge of earth
Harassed by sea
A shield of stone
Protects the land
And the people in its lee
Locals and Tourists - On a cold blustery morning
After the night of hard rains
Dimpled the sands
The sky spatters still
A couple dares the ocean
To douse their sneakers
Which it will no doubt oblige
Her morning walks allow no thought
For the outcomes of such imprudent wagers
Just the waves the sand and the wind
Now on the homeward leg to shower and eat
Then off to work six days a week
At the cafe with its cliches and charm
Where she serves many a breakfast
To tourists and their soggy feet
The Universe in a Single Breath - Sometimes I feel
Like the universe swallowed me whole
Without even the discomfort of a burp
So I close my eyes
Breathe in deep
Until all that is fills me up
Inferno ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #214 - The day ended as an inferno
Sea and sky wracked with enmity
A calamity of chaos
But for the gulls
Soaring with graceful ardour
Placid amidst the tumult
Extremes of a Year’s Journeys - The road leads down
A scabrous red cut
Into a valley of death
The azure sky
Suspended upon its bed
Of cottony white
The extremes of a year's journeys
Found in a single switchback descent
Just ahead of a desert sunset
Somehow, I find
All of it
Beautiful
Illusions ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #213 - Sometimes the darkness
Is less a lack of light
Than a lack of seeing
Expanse ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #212 - In the high desert
Where the land is wide
And the sky wider
I cross the expanse
On a knife's edge of asphalt
Buffeted by furious headwinds
Inside my little cockpit of calm and warmth
I sing "Wassiye! Wassiye!"
With Habib Koite
A song of mirth and joy and love
Just as is the song within me
As I navigate existence
Across the expanse of being
And all its many storms
Blur ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #211 - We are but a blur
You and I
A collection of possibilities
Missed opportunities
Layered over time
An inkling of a beauty
Unrealized
Untested
Unknowable
Yet between us
Always
Undeniable light
Exquisitely tragic love
Wheelhouse ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #210 - Not in my wheelhouse
Just a bit out of control
But full steam ahead
Orange ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #209 - So, nothing rhymes with orange?"
Flatly, said she
Briskly popping a lozenge
"Nothing of a kind or range
To soothe the poet's quest for words
While waxing on such juicy fruit?"
"Not one," said he
With a note of
Finality
"Well, what then of Blorange?
Which the Welsh named a peak
Then too there's sporange
A spore sack, for so say scientist geeks"
The Hour of Cobalt and Indigo - This is the time of peace
The hour of cobalt and indigo
After the last glory seeker
Abandons the sunless horizon
Before the advancing darkness
I find a beauty here
More remarkable
Than fading orbs
Or heated tones
Here in my solitude
Borne of a love
For icy blues
The Earth's gentle sigh
As it closes its eyes
For the brief oblivion of slumber
Turn, Turn, Turn - A darkling blue
Precedes the night
One small beacon
Becomes the light
Where soon to be
A blackened world
But for the stars
A trillion suns
Turn on a wheel
Just like this little one
A Pause for a Moment Without Purpose - Sun coyly peeks
From cloudy perch
At one who skips
Across the rocks
Careful not to run afoul
Of gentle breakers
Or their spray
Gulls on wing
Horizon bound
Their cries
An ever-fading skree
Which mocks the beauty
Of their flight
And here am I
On blackened shore
Which rose from magma's
Golden glow
Now in reverse
The waning sky
Will soon enough
Become the night
Amphitrite Lighthouse - As the sun began to fall
The Great Light said
To the little light
At Amphitrite
Oh, little one
Feel my heat
See my radiance
Do you not wish
To be so grand as I?
Oh, indeed, Great One
The little light replied
Your luminous warmth
Is the envy of all
...continued
Departures ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #208 - The briefest glimpse back
Before finding the stillness
In moving forward
Waiting ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #207 - He waits
In silent patience
For orders
From the terrace
While a surreptitious lens
Captures his composure
Depth ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #206 - I leave the depths unplumbed
Fearful of its denizens
Unaware
All my fears
I carry on my shoulders
A smothering weight
Take a breath, my son
Take a breath
Sit with the present
What you fear
Is already past
Or has not come
That is all your dour spelunking
Will ever find
So long as you believe
The depths are darkness
Be not your mind
But mindful
Open your heart
For in its depths
Is always light
Cracks ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #205 - I only noticed the cracks in my armour
As the blow came down
Beaten
Vulnerable
I rose, vowing not to be struck again
Opting for the only defense remaining
Offense
Such Worlds as This - I listen
To those who tell me
How the world is
How the world is as it is
How disturbingly dark
Some of these worlds are
How maliciously cruel
And though I know this world exists
In their hearts and in their deeds
I know I have never set foot in such a world
Valley of Lassitude - From the valley floor
Yearn for the peaks
And high mountain passes
Though the paths I see
Attain neither peak nor pass
Trapped in this valley of lassitude
Play ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #203 - I recall the world
Through my child-eyes
To see all the world
Is play
Mothers ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #202 - When I was a child
There was always a hand
Within my reach
When I needed reassurance
Or wandered too close to peril
To share the warmth of a loving gesture
Be supportive to others
Defend the vulnerable
Love unconditionally...
Fractured ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #201 - All these moments
Become fractured memories
Altered with time
In a mind
Bent on manipulating them
To serve the present
Wheels ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #200 - I roll along
With the flow
Some sunny Sunday
Afternoon
That's all there is
Within my mind
Naught but the sound
Of wheels on pavement
As my body cleaves
The warm still air
The undulations
Of the path
The gentle song
My spirit sings
What else could I need<
Loss ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #199 - From time to time we lose
People, places and things
We love
In the absence
Recollections induce the bittersweet
With time, perhaps, becoming less bitter than sweet
Losses lightened
By the moments, words and images
We've captured
The joys once lived
Remain in our memories
And in our hearts
In the empty spaces
Something new, perhaps
Something new to love
Beacons ~ Pic and a Word #198 - We stumble over the blackened terrain
The dim beacon of possibility our guide
A brilliant luminescence promised
Just a few steps beyond our vision
These are the affirmations
With which we keep hope alive
And find in ourselves
The tenacity to persevere
Fathers ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #197 - Paddling
On a perfect day
I remember days long past
Of sunshine and calm
Depths still clear
At forty feet
The rod held
Expectantly
In your son's hands
Paddle in yours
The strokes
A gentle
Powerful
Grace
You didn't care for fishing
But I did
So out we went
Islands ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #196 - With the glooming of the day
A subtle sunset failing to find glory
This small slip of Islet
Sits waiting for its siren
In the Sound of gentle sussurrus
While I am tempted by a call
As yet unvoiced by temptress song
On Carrying the Days - Time passes
The days accumulate
The good days
The bad days
The days that broke me
The days that healed me
The days I shone
The days I withdrew into shadow
These were the days which made me
These were the days of reckoning
These were the days which guide me
Work ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #195 - Sometimes
The beauty
Of a moment
Takes the work
Out of the job
So I seek the beauty
In every moment
Towers ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #194 - Every time I reach
Just a little beyond my grasp
I imagine myself a tower
With the pinnacle in my hand
Gaudi - I stand beneath
Towers yet reaching
For heavens once unimaginable
And so I rise
In heart and soul
Astride the vision
Of an elevated spirit
Locking Up - Darkness now
For far too long
Vacant streets
Some windows amber and blue
Most dark and shuttered
He locks up
With a willful hope
A dream from another life
From another time
Perhaps the children
Will still be awake
With their sparkling eyes
Spicy ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #193 - A little spice
A little iced
A little life
Makes everything nice
Vulnerability - In time I began to understand
My vulnerability
Was more attractive
Than my strength
As I became more confident
In my vulnerability
I began to understand
The strength in vulnerability
Birdseed - All the world's aflutter
For little girls
Fistfuls of birdseed
Their indiscriminate chaos
Such are the conditions
Of beautiful perfections
Eyes ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #192 - Earnest and callow
Eyes and smile
Rendered in night's
Deepest shadow
A smile to say
"Goodnight, my friend"
Then again to
Welcome morning
In the darkness
Protect the gate
From those who carry
Cans of paint
I Walk on Rainbow Splinters - Some people think they know me
But I know they cannot know me
Don't see my misfortune
Guess they don' wanna know me
I am just a pilgrim
Saffron signals my devotion
Ain't afraid of no hard road
Fill my heart with passion
Walk thru the fire
Fly thru the fear
See the signs along the path
Though the end remains unclear
Mundane Rhythms - In the flat light
Underground
Splash of colour
Rhythms in the mundane
Frame a mild
Beauty
Being ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #191 - This is a bit of a rough sketch for a chapter in a series which began with "Come It Said" and continued to "Like a Hammer on a Drum". These stories revolve around the idea of an 'electric Buddha' I've been toying with for years.
Cafes and Conversation - In the heat of the afternoon
Cafes and conversation
The men of the medina
Cling to the shade
While the tourists
Do not
Before ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #190 - I float
Gently
Back in time
To an age beyond
This silence of spirit
And its sorrows
These days of hardness
And slight assurances
Back to a time
Of no small beauty
When time itself
Came in an abundance
Applied to the creation
Of wondrous things
While wonder was divinely inspired
Meaning was no fleeting connection
And purpose a life's rendition
Before profit and growth and ROI
Became ends and means and purpose
A Different Kind of Magic - Sometimes I squint
To smudge the world
Within my mind
Then paint upon
The softened scene
A different
Kind of magic
Amigos Mundos - In the everyday
It's the moments spent
With the ones we love
Which make our hearts lighter
The moments better
The living sweeter
Gravity - I see you
Seeing me
As she sees me
And he sees someone
No one else sees
And I wonder
What you wonder
About what I wonder
While he wonders
About whom I wonder
All this seeing
And not seeing
All this wondering
About wondering
It all turns
Upon its tail
Joyful Blues - I enter a world
Of delicious azures
Delightful turquoise
And jolly royals
Which gets me
To wondering
How is it thought so awful
To get the blues
Quiet ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #189 - In the small hours of the night
Somewhere between the last "sweet dreams"
And the alarm clock's insistent chatter
I like to go out into the city
These quiet hours
In the quiet streets
Shared by a few other strays
When being alone in my own skin
Offers a kind of camaraderie with other lone souls
Being alone in their own skin
Past Imperfect Present - In this grand sweep of history
Stand I
A figure out of time
A being out of context
Trying to understand
Reasons from another reason
All I know
In the end
Are these columns
Carved from red stone
Their perfect geometry
Constructed in an imperfect world
Just as the world
Ever is
Just as I
Ever am
The Trials and Rewards of Architectural Photography at Night - With this lens
No wider
Already
Standing in the street
Wary of taxis and buses
The trees obscuring
Already
In my hands
No tripod
The light
So very low
Contrast
So very high
Under a darkling sky
Near the end
Of the sun's
Long good night
By this light
No darker
click-cliick-cliiick
Moments Worth Collecting - Friends and phones and photos
The sharp attack
Of pigeon feathers fluttering
At the park
On a sunny Sunday
In a timeless observance
Of time's frivolous expense
Small moments accumulating
In a life worth living
Layers of Existence - We live
Within a tapestry
Of universes
Intertwined
Overlapped
Layer upon layer
Of existence
Simultaneous
Discreet
Yet none
Entirely separate
From the others
A community
A reef
Beneath the ripples
Of time
Lens-dropping a Conversation - Fragments
Of a conversation
Unheard
My mind
Fills the emptiness
Unspoken
Creates
A story imagined but
Untold
Mask ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #188 - Even in
This gathering of
Strangers
I put on a mask
Don my armour of
Anonymity
Revealing only the self
I want you to see
A shadow
In the darkness
Of multitudes
Moments in Other Moments - >Moments in moments
Two moments captured by mine
Caught in another
Eternity wrought
With the release of shutters
Thrice in a moment
Whimsy - Ah,
The whimsy
Of a few curved lines
And a stencil
In an obscure corner
Of hard edges
And some distress
Meaning indecipherable
But for the inexplicable smile
It brings
To my being
Blues Transformed - In spring
When browns and ice
Of winter's deathly sleep
Recede
Life renews
Thus even deepest blues
Transform
Become such vibrant hues
Reborn
As hope to those awakening
The Mere Fact of Existence - Feeling the arc of Earth
Below me
Atmosphere
Thick with sky
Crossing terrain and distance
Minutes pass as days once did
For greater men than me
When only Prometheus
Had tested the sky
The land rolls by
All the while stoking awe
Not just for historical men
Bound to Earth
But for this small speck of stone
This mote of blue
With its invisible billions
In an incomprehensible emptiness
Red ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #187 - Red wing and moonlight
Homeward bound red-eye flying
Travel ejection
La Solidaritat La Nostra Millor Arma - Resistance no more
This is an image
Of revolution
A call to arms
For the repressed
In Catalonia
An image, too
For us
We have been the prey
Separated from the pack
Divided
Kept down
Exploited
Dominated
Fed upon
By the fat cats
On the Move - Unfocused
Unresolved
Motion blurred
Unsettled
Uncertain
Movement fractured
Undeterred
Unrelenting
Moving forward
Caught ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #186 - I watch the world
From a distance
With a falcon's eye
Steal moments
From unknown lives
Recorded
For all time
Subjects unaware
But for the occasional eye
Catching me
On my surreptitious perch
At the shutter's release
Sheepishly
I set the lens aside
And with a nod
Beg forgiveness
For my crime
Not Written in Stone - The writing on the wall
Is not carved in stone
The world is neither broken
Nor in need of repair
There is no destiny
But the consequences
Of the choices I make
As for the choices
I fail to make
I still have made a choice
Bricks & Mortar - For every wall I have built
For every rampart erected
To protect my being
I have also opened my heart
I have also bared my soul
After so many bricks
And so much mortar
I am beginning to understand
Which is the stronger gesture
Which offers the greatest protection
Columbus - Revered & Reviled
A man of his time
Ahead of his time
Discoverer & Destroyer
Of worlds
A harbinger
Of things to come
Of times extant
Of days which always were
And may always be
Until we find our way
To a better way
Create better world
