Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Photography and Photo Art
I’ve been in a bit of a writing funk lately, not getting anything to come together the way I want it to. I’m a slow writer under the best of circumstances. But it still seems like sometimes writing is a fight and sometimes it flows. Hopefully the flow will be back soon. In the meantime, here are a few photo art pieces with a surreal aspect. Perhaps one of these will tell me a new story.
7-Eleven
I don’t always find her. And the where of her is unpredictable. On those occasions when I don’t find her, I never know whether it’s her choice to remain hidden or whether she has simply abandoned certain places, finding them unsuitable in some way. The first time I found her always comes to mind with the kind of clarity attaching to events that reshape our lives in some fundamental way, as if the experience is permanently housed in its own moment of brilliant light where every little detail is illuminated. It was like that.
Here is one old favorite and five recent photos, all with some cropping and processing in B&W. The last four were taken at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, FL.
Happy Couple – seen in a fountain in Winter Park, FL
I stood below and watched them come.
Only a few at first, winged silhouettes
that swirled and dipped their way across the sky.
Then more appeared and joined the few, a shadow
cloud above my head.
This is a feel good post because I needed one. And maybe you do, too! Enjoy!
Belgian Brew
I have come
to hold myself like a stone
on the dry palm
of my upturned hand,
to comfort myself
with a calloused thumb.
The gloom began to fade as early morning sunlight filtered into the underground station. It crouched on the far side of the tracks and waited for the first of today’s crowd to come streaming down the moving walkway. It liked watching the crowd, the constant flow of shapes and sizes and colors. It liked listening to the drone of the crowd’s constant chattering and muttering.
When I woke up this morning and first saw the news about the mass shooting here in Orlando, I was both shocked and disheartened. I’ve spent most of the day following the story on-line. And finding myself more and more disheartened. It’s bad enough that so many people lost their lives leaving behind so many grieving family members and friends. It’s tragic enough.
But adding to a situation that is already tragic enough, there is a constant hum of rhetoric telling me that we may still not find the sense to deal with the hate and gun violence in this country. What I’m hearing today is that we don’t need to talk about the hate routinely directed toward the LGBTQ community by many of our fellow citizens because “ISIS”. We don’t need to talk about our ridiculous gun laws that make purchasing an assault rifle legal because “ISIS”. What I’m hearing today is that the whole tragedy could have been avoided if everyone else in the bar had been armed and prepared to shoot. So unless we see some major, unexpected change among those who create and maintain our laws, it seems that we will continue to arm more citizens with fewer regulations and that we will continue to promote legislation that aims to discriminate against and validate the hate displayed toward the LGBTQ community.
All of this has led me to conclude once again that human beings, as a species, are too often very bad at developing the qualities of compassion and tolerance that we so badly need if we want a good future for the generations that come after us, if we want a future for our species at all.
So I decided to go ahead and post these images of trees, many of which have been alive longer than many of us. I tend to believe that trees are wise beyond human understanding. Perhaps if we spend more time contemplating them, we can learn something new about wisdom and peace.
I love squirrels. I find them charming. Silly little buggers! So I not only spend time photographing them but I’ll confess that I talk to them. Sometimes they even chitter back. Squirrels will most likely inherit the earth — along with rats, roaches and ants. 😉
Are You Still Here, Human?
A story exists. You know, the one where you fall in
love (once
upon that time),
the one where she comes
through
the door
and occupies your bed.
Not a prince to test you with some silly shoe
but a femme in fancy dress
whose lust is all
for you.
Karen Lee Kleis 