Tag: NaPoWriMo

Twilight Shore

There is a future
We have already created
In which the sea
Becomes our enemy

In the blue calm twilight
Of a winter’s day
The scraggle of barren branches
Reminds me

Of hardscrabble lives
For creatures without fire, food and shelter
And the human beings who cannot afford them

I breathe
Deeply
Evenly
Imagining

A lattice
Of light
Into which
My darkness

Falls

As the last light fails
I go tunneling in the dark
Spelunking with my camera
Seeking twilit beauty
And the exquisite world
Only the tunnelers can see

Transfixed by the tumbling
Flecks of pulverized shell
Riding gentle wavelets
On a wide, shallow beach

Heavier than water
Lighter than sand
Carried by forces
Greater than they

The detritus
Which washes up
On my shore

I wonder at it
Why it won’t just
Wash away

Instead, oh instead
It just piles up
Detritus

On a hot desert highway
No wind in the air
Half way across Xinjiang
I stop to photograph there

Loading up with a new roll
I click, advancing the film
The shot I take is of a shadow world
I’m astride my bike as if in another realm

There are places
Which seem an endless space
Like the land goes on forever
Into nothingness

But when I look more closely
Therein lies the beauty
I see the endless changes
And nothing less

On a cycling tour of China
Across that vast country
I took a sidelong glance
At becoming a celebrity

In every little town
On every major street
No matter where I went
All eyes fell on me

In a duel of longevity
Between stone and the living
I would never bet
On life not winning

Though life seems so
Ephemeral
While stone seems so
Well, eternal