Category: Samsung Galaxy S5

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Forbidden Library, Britannia Mines, British Columbia, Canada

Shambles ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #403

There was a sense to him
Of a man once capable
Whose deep and organized intellect
Now descended into a tattered shambles
Of non sequitur and conspiracy theory
Consciousness corrupted by cognitive bias
Offering easy answers to difficult questions

His was the kind of disheveled mind
I expected to find huddled around an oil drum
Set alight for warmth in some subterranean refuge
Gathered there amongst others
Who had failed life as much as life had failed them

But, no

A driver came ’round to the passenger door
Opened it with crisp, deferent efficiency
And this sullen, morbid, dreadful mind emerged
Camouflaged by Italian designers

He passed through the gates of power
A useful idiot oiling wheels of industry
Constructed and maintained
By well educated minds
Which might know better
Were they not entirely consumed
By self interest

In him they’d found their man of the people
Someone who could speak to the masses
Motivate them against their own interests
A trait exploited fully by the engines of avarice
So that many there were
Huddled around burning drums
While the masters of the universe
Nestled in their dragon’s hoard

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Light in the Darkness, Crease Building, Riverview Hospital, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada

Light ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #389

The light within
Too dim
To illumine
My confines

A window
Lets in
The light
Of the world

Slight
Narrow
Itself confined
To a shaft

Enough to illumine

Patterns

Which become bricks
In one wall of my

Confinement

That there is a wall
Unnerves me
But a prison of bricks
Is preferable to one of darkness

So I welcome the light
Invite its wisdom
Its insight

Ask it

Is there more here than the bricks?

A soft, warm chuckle precedes its reply

There is
You will not like much of it
Many things in the light
Seem terrifying

That is the way of life
But so too is there beauty
And love
In the light

And while terror 
Is found easily enough
In the darkness
Love and beauty need light

I nodded
Contemplated for a moment
Then turned to the light

I accept this challenge

And so began
The journey to discover
Me

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Tyaughton Caonoeing, Tyaughton Lake, Chilkotin Mountain Range, British Columbia, Canada

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

My youth
A stream of summer memories
New England lakes
Bass and wallabies
A pickerel here and there
The perch and sunnies
Disdainfully thrown back

Paddling today
On a perfect day
I reflect on those times
And the times that would follow

Times of storms and dark clouds
Murky shallows
When we were not always
So gentle with each other
Awkward
Sometimes graceless
The depth of you
Forever unreachable

But still I knew you
As the father who’d take me out
For no more than the pleasure
Of my pleasure

That is
I knew
Always
That you loved me

You’ve been gone now
For longer than I ever had you

For your eulogy
I used the metaphor
Of the missing wingman
A natural for the pilot father

But on this day
Of sunshine and calm
Of depth and clarity
I notice a second paddle
Laying against the empty seat
Wishing your hands were upon it
So that once again
We could take on this task of living
With the harmony of paddling
Together

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Stillness, Howe Sound, Porteau Cove Provincial Park, Sea to Sky Highway, British Columbia, Canada

Stillness ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #167

On some unseen horizon
Beyond my peace of mind
Where shadows play
In savage grey
And hope has not yet
Even hope

No flutter on the water
No ripple in the wind
No fish or whale
To breech the sea
No gull on wing
To cry the air alive
No colour falls to eye

In this world
Of nothingness
In stillness
Drifted I

Aboard a ship
No sails were set
Devoid of all intent
My mind awash
In listless thought
No acts of love
From feckless heart

Yet all the while
And deep below
This ship becalmed
My spirit spare
A current
Ran unseen

It swirled
And tossed
It mustered
Forces unbeknown
Which bubbled to the top

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This Cacophony of Being, Britannia Mine, Britannia Beach, British Columbia, Canada

On the Cacophony of Being

This spirit of life

This beauty
This pain
This anguish
This love

This cacophony of being
That is I
That is experience
That is action

Tension of light and dark
Tension of right and wrong
Never grey
Never muted

That mud of fear
That mud of anger
Gripping at my heart
Gripping at my mind

But I will not
Go under
But I will not
Lie down

Or die
In the silence
Of living
Without venture

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Fallen Maple Leaf, Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Remembrance ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #161

For all of you
Who’ve gone to ground
Fallen in a season
For which life
Had not yet come around
Bleakest autumn
Fell upon your spring

I remember
And I write

Words seeking time
In some future dream
When the Flanders torch
Shall not be passed
We will no longer ask
The young to die
For causes wrought
Upon the lie
Of righteousness

A time when poppies bloom
In their rightful spring
Not this remorseful
Autumnal rite
No longer red
No blood be spilled
But lovely white
Our peace fulfilled