Tag: the road

Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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Cadillac Ranch, Route 66, Amarillo, Texas, United States of America

Landscapes

These things we do to landscapes

Of space and time
Of politics and social norms
Of family and friends

The things that stay
But never stay the same

The ephemeral things
Lost and soon forgotten

Nothing ever stays
But change

Which is often the point
Of these things we do to landscapes

Change the landscape
Change each other
Change ourselves

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Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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Cloud Cover, Dolomite, California State Road 136, California, United States of America

Cloud Cover

The band of ominous cloud
Hovers over the highway
Mile after mile

An oppressive weight
Waiting to fall

My mood becomes dark as the sky

Until I realize the low grey cover
Provides an atmospheric parasol

A gift to soften harsh desert sun
Diminish the heat of afternoon
An invitation to step out of the car

I breathe deeply in sage-scented air
While my mood becomes effervescent

As sage drifting in the desert breeze

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Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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Exiting the Sierras, Nebelhorn, Lincoln Highway, California, United States of America

Instamatic Memory Machine

Much as I hate moving
And all that packing
Which takes forever
As I go through the shoe boxes
Of memorabilia
Stacked in the closet
Which have remained unopened
Since the last time I moved

I have to admit
To some minor or major
Moments of fascination
Or delight
Or longing
Emotion moving my core
With some rekindled
Long-forgotten moment
Or chapter
In a life becoming much too long
To hold all the memories
Within my mind alone

A birthday card
A letter written but never sent
Elementary report cards
And aptitude test results

A story I’d written
With misshapen letters
And a child’s innocence
A Dragnet drama
Starring a detective snake
Age eight

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Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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Tunneling, Willow Ranch, Interstate 395, California, United States of America

Comfort Food

It was a straight run
Down valley
And at 100 miles an hour
The landscape became a gun barrel
I rifled through

The road was freshly paved
Though heavily pebbled
So the car hummed
As it shimmied in the heavy winds

Here was I
A projectile crossing open country
Which to my being is as good

As being wrapped in a blanket
By a fire on a snowy winter’s eve

Road trips are comfort food for my soul

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Landscape by Patrick Jennings
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Rearview, South on State Road 375, Nevada, United States of America

Choices

I make choices
Sometimes they’re wrong
Sometimes they’re right

Sometimes I know
Which way they’re going to go
Even before I make them

More often they go
The way they’re going to go
Long before I see the right or the wrong

I make choices
Sometimes I realize
Sometimes I don’t

Until they’re in the rear view mirror

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Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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A Glimmer Beyond the Surreal, Golden Gate Bridge, From the Marin Headlands, San Francisco, California, United States of America

Glimmer ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #225

I come to
At the shadowy peak
Of surreal darkness
Above a world both familiar
And utterly strange

Shrouded beacon
Reaches into the murk
Whisper of stifled radiance
Beckons

Illuminates
A serpentine road
Beginning and end uncertain

Strike out for the unknown
Keep faith the road reaches the bridge

Hopeful glimmer beyond

Continue reading Glimmer ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #225