“Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another.”
-- Albert Einstein
In a manner of speaking
This is the creation of energy
The capture of light, thought, emotion and memory
Preserved to inspire a future mind
Energy multiplied over through time
Eyes that stare forward from the past
A past that reflects a future shown
In the light that is yet to be captured
And I capture with a lens all of the light there is to see
A passing moment in time; a moment that will cease to be
Now a moment that will exist forever for you, and forever for me
Light made to art, by a spirit trapped but still so free
In this marvel of a jar, I can hold time tight
Everything that this moment is, by capturing the light
Time yielding its moments to an image, and halting its forward flight
To let us reflect on what was, and where we were, when the time is right
Call me a time traveler, and this box is my time machine
I am a merchant of memories; spending a currency of what is and what is unseen
What I gather and what I see in my world, and in my mind, and what has been
With love, and passion, and art and soul, I salvage your memories and dreams
So travel with me in this world, like the sands washing on to the shore
In waves always constant but never same; some in a whisper and some in a roar
Relive what once was; recapture the time, the youth, the feelings, and more
Created merely from light, to bring your memories to life, and let your imagination soar
They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul
Through my photography, I hope to show the world as I see it
My lens is an extension of my eyes
And therefore not just filled with the light I capture
But reflecting back to the world
My passions, and my soul
You’re the glistening blade in the dark of the night
Slicing this flesh without the need for sight
You sharpen your knife
With the rough parts of my life
Deftly cutting away
The despair and dismay
Bleeding the thoughts that break and betray
Phantom fingers pull pieces free
The bricks from the mortar surrounding my very existence
With this flimsy film dividing air from blood
A passion trapping breath
Leaving it clear to see the inevitable death
Of thought and love and life and hope
Dismal despair at the end of my rope
These elements keep me locked away
Hidden from everything but the mind’s eye
The nightly torment of seeking my sight
Through thoughts that fill my mind with fears
And my days with blight
Hands tied tight
A torment to not hold and feel
What is not meant to be so real in life
Within hope I can dream
Breaking dawns of a new day
Where on the horizon I’m not blind, but granted sight
Where my mind can see beyond the light
Beyond the reality of this life
To the one that can make this real
To expose all that I can think and feel
To show the world what my mind’s eye can see
To open my prison and set me free
To be the muse that I need you to be
But alas, you will always be invisible to me
Built delicately
Within a vessel
Forged from the heat
And the force
Of the Earth’s living core
Piece by piece
I have been intricately placed
Within these glass walls
To sit upon your mantle
Untouched by your hands
Only to study
Your eyes behind my glass
The far away look
I see
Always with the light
Bent by this glass
But at my flawed perfection
Still you wonder
Yet keeping your distance
Afraid to destroy my little world
Afraid to let me sail in yours
My hull will never
Feel the kiss of your oceans
My sails will never unfurl
To catch your breath
And give me life
Alone I sit
In quiet observation
Waiting for the day
You break the glass
To set me free
Or leave me
Dashed upon your hearth
Only you can move
This worn and weary hull
Fill my sails
With words of hope
And carry me to the distant shore
Leaving these waters far behind
To drown in them no more
Tides that wash upon the sand
Crack and split the hardened land
Forced upon to prove its worth
Such as the time that wears my hand
Breaking body and spirit’s mirth
Crumbling which was strong and grand
Even mountains reduce to Earth
But the mountains always rise again
So give me rise
And give me hope
Take away my morning fears
Shone in the light of my younger years
And smooth my jagged edges bare
With breath, whispers and seductive sighs
With the grace of your touch
And the heat of your eyes
With all you give that means this much
And not by the flow of my tears
Your words become my feeling
Your touch becomes my sight
I hear your quiet breathing
End the wandering quiet night
I reach to find that in my mind
Memories and moments, never far behind
Like fingertips gracefully tracing signs
Seeing a feeling that will never grow blind
From footsteps on the floor
Coming to me silently
Dark and shapeless shadows
Begging me to give them more
Consuming me with visions
And stealing my eye
Feeling my way down this whitened road
The hard winds chill and sting with snow
Flesh and bones should never be so cold
When for you alone I would sell my soul
Just to keep this hope
The hope that in my heart I hold
Of warmth on cold nights
Passion beyond all my sight
Pouring love into my life
A wine too rich to drink it down
When the hull does crack
With salty brine in which I drown
And the heart does break
Sails lay limp on this windless lake
Your whispers won’t give guide for this trip
Nor save me from the icy grip
No life or love for life and love’s sake
Slippery rail now leaving from the living
Pulled under by the weight of lost and lonely days
The murky water of my past misgivings
This mind and soul, my final grave
From March 24, 2009
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Waving to me
From your good-bye window
I catch the scent
Of this last hurrah
A Fourth-of-July
Grand finale
Complete with the
Bombs bursting in air
Powder and energy
Heat and purpose
Destroyed in a flash
Clouded by the sulfur scent
Washing the air dirty
And you wave to me
Mouthing the words
I cannot hear
Words I don’t want to hear
From silent lips speaking
This final message
Ringing in my ears
Is this all?
All this is?
It is gone
My guiding mage: a book, and the cold tang from a glass. The elixir that slows time, and carves the words of this book into my mind, making the emotions last.
Remember, no matter who you run into in life, they have a story. There is a reason they are who they are, and many times you simply cannot understand why.
Reserve your judgments, show tolerance, and offer the forgiveness from one loving person to another, that they may have never received otherwise.
Clear and crisp, these winter skies
When autumn binds the summer’s ties
To frosty morning grounds
And silence that surrounds
Hearing nothing but a heart that pounds
And I sigh
I think, and I sigh
For here upon the midnight nigh
The winter moon with arms stretched high
Looks down upon the hills and trees
Leafless skeletons, forgive the breeze
Neither with an ask nor please
And I sigh
I ponder this, and I sigh
Taking back the sun and sky
Against the winters might, I try
But coldly under this smiling moon
I sit alone in an empty room
I sit in a house of empty rooms
And I sigh
I sit, and I sigh
Beneath Cassiopeia seated in the sky
Trying to catch the hunter’s eye
To gain his heart, to gain his mind
To gain a love so hard to find
To have their lives so intertwined
And I sigh
I think, and I sigh
Staring above to the winter sky
On frozen grounds where love can die
Taking from me flesh and bone
Life only borrowed, not to own
Belonging always to our home
And I sigh
I exhale one last sigh