Through the market streets
They carry precious cargo
Enigmatic tale
Author: Patrick Jennings
I travel, when I can. Write, when inspired. Photograph, where there's beauty. Make films, for a living.
Oh, and I play a decent didjiridu.
Pix or it didn’t Happen
It has been said
Pix or it didn’t happen
All too true
In a literal sense
As the mind grows older
And my memory weaker
Reflections on Faith and Icons
The common image of me and my faith
Is naught but a reflection in a rippled pond
An inverted, distorted misconception
Of institutional icons
Revealing nothing of me or my heart
Cacophony
I exit Jama Masjid’s exquisite tranquil beauty
Take a moment outside on the steps
To put on my shoes
Before stepping down
Into the cacophony of civilization
I was told, by many people
India would be a game-changer
Would alter my understanding of everything
In ways that could not be described
Only experienced
But I’d already spent 6 months
Bicycling across China
How much more
Could my understanding
Be altered?
More than I can describe
To those who have not shared
The experience of India
More than I can even describe
To myself
Distorted Beauty
Lines and curves
Simply and exquisitely executed
Create a harmony in form
Unparalleled
While the prisms and lenses of my culture
Cut and polished from fear and ignorance
Distort the culture that created this beauty
Into twisted paroxysms of ugliness
Monkey Business ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #360
A macaque shares the rooftop
Lingers on the rail
As the rising sun stokes
The smoke laden atmosphere
To molten amber
It’s tempting to believe
The monkey is as enthralled as I
With the iconic Red Fort silhouette
But I rather suspect the bugger’s
Feigning disinterest in my breakfast
They’re clever that way
To stray any further from the table
Set lavishly with silver and crystal on white tablecloth
Would invite a blitzkrieg
And the confiscation of my croissant
It’s what I would do were our roles reversed
Fortunately, this angle is perfect
And near enough the table for deterrence
As the shutter clicks
I thank my little gray enemy
For the perfect pose
The croissant is delicious
Slathered with raspberry jam
I chase the last of it down with espresso
While the disappointed macaque lumbers off
In search of its own breakfast
Contrast in Wan Light
Sol yet plays coy with leaden horizon
But there is enough magic
In dawn’s wan light
To illumine the contrast
Of ancient glory
Astride modern poverty
While camera and I
Find beauty in both
Half a World Away
You with those sad eyes
In the sallow light
Backdropped by electric blue
And me with the glass eye
Recorder of moments
Context only by supposition
I could not ask you then
What countenanced such sorrow
Or was it just an unguarded moment
Emotion apparent in an unintended gesture
I am left only with guesses
While you cannot even know
Someone reflects on this moment
From half a world away
Existential Parade
This parade of life
This hubbub of trade
Of needs
Of desires
This chaos of order
And community
And here am I
Amid the throng
In the moments between
Want and have
In the choices between
Necessity and pleasure
This is existential quandary
Alone in my thoughts
In a sea of solitary moments
Each a universe
Borne from a solitary mind
Known only to itself
These in parallel all
With the essentials
Of desire
And necessity
A flurry of universes
Sharing a single dimension
While in my universe
The bodies of a thousand strangers
Dance in cadence
With the flow of trade
A performance at once
Exquisitely mundane and beautiful
Pix to Words 