remembrance…

Sony NEX-5N f/6.3 1/2500s 210mm 100 ISO

As the winter winds travel across Wyoming’s landscape

the swirling snow releases its memories of you, lost …

somewhere… on Casper Mountain.

Its frigid touch awakens me to your

aloneness – in that wilderness of blinding snow

cries – deafened by the river of winds,

calling – out in hope for

a human form – to emerge out of the whiteness

the warmth – of a human hand

the sound – of a voice, comforting you

accompanying – you home.

As I become hostage to this winter’s swirling thoughts

the river winds tear into my soul

releasing tears arising from

the darkness of grief’s aloneness, seeking

a knowing to emerge out of ignorance’s darkness

you found – peace

within – a loving presence

embracing – you

accompanying – you home.

Lawrence John Anderson, January 11, 1957 – January 20, 1980

lens-artists challenge: it’s a small world

today’s heavenly gift
again is small…
billowing cloud ~Issa (cited: haikuguy.com)

apple leaf Nikon 750 f/3.5 1/40s 40mm 100 ISO
egg’s reflection Nikon D750 f/5.6 .05s 40mm 100 ISO
breakfast Nikon 750 f/5.6 1/100s 40mm 200 ISO

micro images (AF-S micro nikkor 40mm) submitted in response to slow shutter speed’s lens-artists photo challenge.

be safe…be well…be sage.

lens artist photo challenge: favorite photos of 2020

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

“it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,

“it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,

“it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the winter of despair,

“we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,

“we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way

“– in short, the period was so far like the present period,

“that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received,

“for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” ~Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.

Quote from Charles Dickens’, A Tale of Two Cities, and images submitted in response to Travels and Trifles first photo challenge for 2021.

fan 

Glazed silk, newly cut, smooth, glittering, white,
As white, as clear, even as frost and snow.
Perfectly fashioned into a fan,
Round, round, like the brilliant moon,
Treasured in my Lord's sleeve, taken out, put in—
Wave it, shake it, and a little wind flies from it.
How often I fear the Autumn Season's coming
And the fierce, cold wind which scatters the blazing heat.
Discarded, passed by, laid in a box alone;
Such a little time, and the thing of love cast off.
~Pan Chieh-Yü*
fan…Nikon D750 f5.6 1.60s 300mm 100 ISO

*cited: Trans: Florence Ayscough & Any Lowell The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fir-Flower Tablets

double exposure

The images above were created through the use of multiple exposure, both within camera and through digital editing. This Double Exposure project was inspired by the belief that images give voice to the emotional pain of COVID across the globe. While this virus does not discriminate, the number of people who are most impacted during this time are those who live within impoverished communities—dense housing projects, reliance on public transportation, low income, limited access to medical care and sick leave, employment instability, and rates of non-communicable diseases and illness.  

The phoenix that may arise from the flames of inconsolable grief is an awareness of the inequality aggregation of these social and economic disparities exacerbates the adverse effects of all humanity.  

COVID-19 is not a pandemic. It is a syndemic.

each at its own hour 

The grass does not refuse
To flourish in the spring wind;
The leaves are not angry
At falling through the autumn sky.
Who with whip or spur
Can urge the feet of Time?
The things of the world flourish and decay,
Each at its own hour. ~LiPo

Trans: Arthur Waley, The Poet Li Po II. 26. The Sun Gutenberg.org

Nikon D750 f/5.6 1/80s 150mm 100 ISO

“The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflections on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep crease scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.” ~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea