Category: Photography

Ode to My Imaginary Friend

Her hair is iridescent blue.
Her mind is God-knows-where.
The air she breathes is truly true
As if she wasn’t there.

We talk about philosophy.
She won’t admit she’s wrong.
So long with rationality.
Be obstinately strong.

The monsters deep beneath my bed
Are fearful of her sight
As might the monsters overhead
When she turns out their light.

I trust she’ll always have my back.
She won’t lead me astray.
She stays my mind when doubts attack
And shadows come to play.

Text: Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar. I am hosting and the theme will be odes, poems of praise–praising whatever, any or no form.

Photos: “Only Shadows” by the author.

An Ode to Forgiveness

Forgiveness kicks us out of hell
Where we prefer to stay.
It’s warmer where the devils dwell,
But we are on our way.

Where shall we go?
We do not know.
We are, right now, and anyhow,
Kicked out to breathe a brighter day.

Text: Linked to dVerse Quadrille where De Jackson (aka WhimsyGizmo) is hosting and to Debbie Roth’s Forgiveness Fridays.  I am practicing odes, poems of praise, because his Thursday I will be featuring odes on dVerse Meeting the Bar.

Photos: “And Then There Was a Rainbow” by the author.

Don’t Bump Me in the Night

What’s spooky in November
Fireworks my fear.
Bumps and groans
And nighttime moans
Entertain my ears.

Photos: “What Goes Bump in the Night”, above, and “Spooky Plants”, below, by the author and linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “What Goes Bump in the Night” and, since I think they are all mundane enough, trablogger’s Mundane Monday.

Spooky Plants

Kindness Beyond Altruism

I’ve given up on the terms “selfishness” and “altruism”. Those words assume we are individuals with debts and credits in a karmic bank account that can be exchanged. Kindness, especially forgiveness, is a communal experience including even onlookers* and crossing generations. There is no point measuring it. It overflows all containers.

I remember picking up the couple in the evening as I entered I-95 in central Maine. I figured they had to go to the next town, but their destination was one hundred miles further north. They were as tired and messed up financially as I was. She was well along in her pregnancy.

That was so long ago it feels like another lifetime. I drove them to their apartment which was as rundown as the farmhouse room I was renting and left them with a smile. They never stopped smiling back.

WITHOUT MEASURING
AUTUMN SUNLIGHT OVERFLOWS
ONTO EVERYONE

*I realized this after reading Sarah Connor’s post “Kindness — haibun for dverse”.

Text: Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday.  Toni is hosting with the theme “kindness”.  I am also linking this to Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays.

Photo: “Bright Leaves Bright Light” by the author.

A Man in the Park

Halloween will soon be here.
Scary stuff will pop–appear.
There’s something spooky when a pop
Appears and doesn’t plan to stop.

I see a man lost in the park.
We monsters dance when it grows dark.
He looks OK. I’ll let him be.
It’s best if he does not see me.

He thinks this spot is so mundane.
His ears are plugged so why explain?
Tonight when cosmic lights turn on
His mundane world will–pop–be gone.

Text: I am linking this to dVerse Poetics. Bjorn is hosting with the theme of considering the monster’s perspective.

Photos: “Maple and Oak” taken at Somme Preserves.  To make sure I have something mundane enough, there’s “Below the Road” at the bottom.  I’m linking these to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with theme “A Walk in the Park” and trablogger’s Mundane Monday.

Maple and Oak

Below the Road

Seeing

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander‘st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Here is what remains after I erase all but the text in red bold:

Seeing

Summer’s temperate.
Winds do shake and heaven shines
And gold and every fair declines.
Nature’s trimmed but summer shall not fade
Nor shall thou wander in his shade.
When eternal eyes can see,
This gives life to thee.

Text: Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar.  Victoria C. Slotto hosts and her theme is to take a text and create another text from it by erasing some of the original text.

Photos: Something to see with or without eternal eyes: “Chicago River”, above, and “Reflections Everywhere”, below, by the author.

Reflections Everywhere

Mask Over Mask

I wear a mask to hide from you
Since you would not believe
The mask I wear below that one,
The one you can’t perceive.
That mask as well is not quite true.
It hides reality
That’s always there and never done
And one that I can’t see.

Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Michelle Beauchamp  (Mish) is hosting with the theme “mask”.

Photo: “Sky Masked By Leaves” by the author and linked to Frank Jansen’s Tuesday Photo Challenge with the theme “sky”.

Noisy Halloween

Ghosts should not wear noisy shoes.
Creak. There goes my floor.
Slippers are what I would use.
Bang: The basement door.
I tell them, “Don’t you realize?
You’re noisy. Don’t come in.”
We stand and stare with scary eyes.
They bang the door again.

Text: Linked to dVerse Quadrille. Grace is hosting with prompt word “creak”.

Photo: “Pumpkin Pile” by he author.

Unexpected Beauty

Some do not see beauty there.
My fingers point it out.
Some do not feel empathy–
Heartbreak all about.
I’ve taken much for granted, too.
I miss my share each day.
Tomorrow I’ll miss more with you,
But you’re not in the way.

Photo: “Autumn Path” by the author and linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with prompt “Unexpected Beauty” and trablogger’s Mundane Monday.