Even at this narrowest end
The breadth and depth
Of the canyon
Makes Earth
Feel
small
Even at this narrowest end
The breadth and depth
Of the canyon
Makes Earth
Feel
small
I have to admit there are an overabundance of road pics in my catalogue, photographs in which various streets, highways, byways and gravel tracks from my travels serve as the primary subject of a landscape. Mind you, I’m not apologizing for that. We photograph and write about what we know and love, and I love few things more than being behind the wheel of a car (or pedaling a bicycle) through unknown country. Over 40+ years of driving and cycling I’ve amassed several hundreds of thousands of miles wheeling on just about every road surface imaginable.
Safe to say, I know roads.
The world comes apart a little
As I drag myself up onto the shore
Desperate to make the high tide line
Before exhaustion consumes my consciousness
Which seems already sparsely rational
The flood tide saved me
Put land within my reach
But while the Moon is a compassionate Goddess
The Sea Lord is greedy
And eagerly awaits Her waning influence
To drag me back to His depths
Hand over hand I crawl
Wet sand beneath my nails
Sodden clothes a sullen weight
Every laboured breath sputters salt water
Until my eyes roll back
With a final thought
I hope this is far enough
The sky like the snow
Sullen and sullied
The latter a victim
Of spring thaw
The collected detritus
Of winter storms
Revealed beneath
Retreating drifts
While the clouds
Speak with the voice
Of ill wind and
Malcontent climate
But the lake
Ahhhh
The lake sparkles blue
And even the worrying breeze
Does little but kindle its glimmer
A beautiful scene
After the ranger’s warning
There would be naught
But the clouds to see
A few steps beyond
My car parked at the trailhead
The day falls away
A tumult of stone
Fallen amongst the grasses
From ragged cliffs above
Ancient diminished crags
Once, perhaps, grand as snow capped horizon
First to soil, then to life, feeding hungry bison
Salted inner sea
Perturbed not at all
By even a breeze
Offers its peaceful cradle
To the failing sun
I enter a cathedral
As if into warped space
Not warped as a physicist might think
But as in how a mystic might think
That is, a spiritual space or dimension
Bent, folded and manipulated
To conform to a specific configuration
Long ago transcribed into books
From collective memories
Predating written language
Aside from a certain wonder
At the passion and dedication
To the exquisite expression
Of humanity’s greater achievements
In art and architecture
A cathedral reminds me
Of the power of group thinking
For both good and ill
How this can become a tight leash
On an individual whose spirit
Simply refuses to conform
But it also reminds me
Of the exultant satisfaction
I experienced
When I finally broke the leash
Chose my own path
And found my way to a spiritual space
Which conformed to me
Not that I am without
My own warped sense of spiritual dimension
But the distortion is familiar to me
Has meaning for me
And brings me to a place of peace