Tag: living in the moment

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Rain Abated, Cannon Beach, Oregon, United States of America

Stormy Solitude

Rain abated
Dimpled sand dries in Rorschach patches
Sky a mottled grey
A single darkened cloud
Mimics patterns in the sand

Some might wish for the sun
To feel the heat on their skin
Or rising from the scalding sand
Secure in the haven of a beach towel
Beneath an umbrella in a sea of beachgoers

But I prefer this solitude
Shared only with the rumbling surf
And the gull idling by
On the penetrating wind
Which tousles my knotting hair

Draw my windbreaker tight against the insistent chill
Rub some warmth into my thighs through the denim
All the while  engaging the impression
That I have this spectacular planet
All to myself

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Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon, United States of America

Surf Song

With gentle insistence
The ocean rises up to greet me
And I, pant legs rolled to my calves
Welcome it’s cool, frothy embrace
Enjoy the caress of water over my ankles
The sensation of sinking into the sand
As the receding wave draws the beach
From beneath my feet

I stay there for an hour or so
Take a few steps back
When the waves threaten my trousers
A few steps forward
When they fail to reach me
My sandpiper dance
In time with the surf song
And its choir of gulls

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Waiting, Taken from a moving taxi, Jakarta, Java, Indonesia

Waiting ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #330

In a moment of sizzle
Humming fan blades
And the thrum of traffic

She waited
For some tasty tidbit
I couldn’t make out from the taxi

She thought about yesterday
And tomorrow
Last week and next month

She thought about everything
But this moment
And the tasty thing sizzling

Or the next moment
When the tasty thing would mercilessly
Burn her tongue oh so deliciously

But…

Who’s to say any of this is true?
I was just a photographer living in the frame
Capturing serendipitous moments from a moving taxi

And now I’m just a poet
Listening to the words as they come
Trying to give them their moment

So all of it is fiction
Or maybe some of it is the truth
Though, hopefully

I’ve created something
Which at least
Speaks truly

Even if
It only speaks truly
About the act of creation

Or maybe, the story
Is just saying something truthful
About the creator

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Late Afternoon Reds and Blues, Moki Dugway, Utah State Highway 261, United States of America

The Changing Sky

From a high vantage
Late in the afternoon
Or is this early evening?
An in-between of light and tone
Like my mood

I scan the roads
Which took me here
Now and in the past
And again perhaps
In some near or distant future

Far below
Moving slowly
Or so it seems
Scale and time
Diminished by the distance
Carloads of people
And luggage
Expectations
And dreams to be
Fulfilled or dashed

Some approach
Some recede
All have, or will
Round the curve below
Before, or after
Passing behind me
On the switchback’s final curve

Some stop
Unload their occupants
Who join me and the gentle breeze
On Cedar Mesa’s rim
To bask in changing sky
With quiet wonder

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Incoming, Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon, United States of America

Haystack Rock

A seductive rock
On ocean’s edge
Half the day
Surrounded by the tide

Attracting thousands
Nature’s iconic monument
To a monumental coastline

In time with the waves’ ungentle caress
They saunter near, then scramble back

This flightless flock of sandpipers

Photographs and selfies
Arm-in-arm and hand-in-hand

A deep breath in, a longer one out
The calm that comes on any shore
Where the surf rumbles and sighs

Some may say it’s the rock
But the rock is a draw as any other draw
A pier, a lighthouse, beach chairs and gazebos
It is the sea which helps us remember ourselves