but life flashes as the perfect picture never develops - this is - sitting in hours- it - never ready- truth flashes in between composure - focus- some smiles are captured - and those moments in between - words [wpm]
well, maybe i used to have a really different sort of life a few years ago, the kind where people still tell me, wow that's the kind of life i only dream about, what was it like, it must have been amazing. and sure yes it was. these days i don't even mention it anymore. time to-- because-- you see, between that and the world constructed in my mind through creativity and words, and from behind these headaches and sunglasses, i haven't seen much of reality. i haven't even looked at what's right next to me because none of it even resembled what i thought it would or should or-- or what i thought i knew i wanted it to look like. the life i was supposed to have. and that probably sounds familiar and i guess they say it never is or does or will--
and then i just sort of-- after all this time, started taking pictures everyday of every day with my old, temperamental digital camera. we have an on-again-off-again relationship in that it only actually takes pictures on occasions, when i hit it or shake it or when it's not telling me 'memory card error' or 'corrupt data' or when i can at least identify who is in the blurry photos. but it works. sometimes. and in these photos i've captured-- there's simplicity in the perspective, change, colors, fade, or focus. seeing things in another light or if nothing else-- trying 'in this light' and muting the shades of my words, to the simple, the corners of my world right now. corners of my mind and the corners that i've discovered right here, i was perhaps even hiding in them, and now i see, i don't have to go anywhere and they are taking me somewhere completely different.
it's been three years now since i moved back home from the five years of my life that i spent in paris but you won't see any pictures of eiffel towers these days, just cars and pavement buildings and suburbs for now and hours that glow when you really can't tell where i am or where any of us are. and i'm not looking away from these photographs anymore because they're even better in this light-- this isn't to say that i've figured it all out and everything is suddenly perfect for me, because you should have seen me yesterday, but i have my good moments, i don't think that the light at the end of the tunnel was just the flash of my camera, i think you were there with me and actually we both could have seen it but we just didn't-- too busy hiding in the shadows. and really, everyone has pictures of the eiffel tower, so in a way our subtle every day photos are most spectacular because no one else has captured lived laughed or written the moment in this exact light.
it's rather simple. like the old nokia cell phone i've reverted back to using in the past few weeks since my smaller more socially acceptable cell phone died. wires crossed uncrossed and now at rest.a little over a month on a new headache medication and the world seems to have slowed, calmed, nearly emptied-- through this view out the same sunglasses i always wear, it's in a light i've never seen before. simple. just phone calls received, dialed. text messages-- not enough memory to save the ones from last week so just delete and start fresh. a familiar phone-- so old i think it's probably back in style-- remember the old nokia you could drop in the gutter and take in the shower and spill coffee on and step on or drive your car over and it never broke or stopped working-- it's that one, and it works perfectly and it makes me laugh when i use it and it's easy. it's simple. {abby one of my young students thought i accidentally brought my house phone to the cafe the first time she saw it! she still calls it my house phone} but you know what, it works better than any of the fancy mobile phones i've used for years and it's reliable. the reception is unbelievable and the battery never dies it's suddenly everything i needed.
as i've often mentioned i've been battling chronic headaches for years and going through a series of new medications and treatments. the latest approach was the most drastic, and i've found some headache relief, but all at once everything else seemed to change as well, thoughts come slower and are often lost right in mid sentence, and words--- well-- i feel like we're starting over again. this has been a transforming month. another life. things are somewhat simpler, and i almost like it. but some of it has also been unbelievably frustrating and disheartening and just exhausting.
in the midst of all of this i had a visit from my dear norwegian friend and i will share some of our photographic explorations of suburbia. and then there's something that i found which i'd thought existed but also somewhat took with a grain of salt--as myth-- urban legend, turned out to be walking with me all along just like they said but-- you know how things come and go and if you listen closely you can hear me whispering it right now, but maybe you can feel it under my words, and words to come. until then, and until i figure out how to merge the new and old ways of living, thinking, functioning, observing, appreciating and most importantly writing, i might play around with posting some of the photos i've been taking lately with my really old, faulty digital camera, as for the past month, my words have been lost somewhere inside this head of mine that's trying to find its way through the pain and back again speaking the same language, and learning yours. the headaches aren't completely gone, and even though at times it makes me dizzy, somehow things stopped spinning. please excuse my unplanned absences as i adjust to all of this and still find my words, and you-- and back again.
making something of nothing— scribbling words spilling coffee cleaning up my messes scribbling coffee spilling poetry on napkins—
from behind big dark sunglasses and chronic migraines, good coffee gone cold and the hours, the hours where do they— i write. leaving traces of haiku on scraps of paper everywhere i go and working with promising writers— captivating them with their own words.
i read read read (despite the fact i'm a slow reader) and i'd say a good 75% of those books are picture books (ya, kids' books, whatever) and if i catch you standing there i'll start reading one to you, i believe every adult needs a good dose of children's lit every day. a picture book can turn around your entire perspective, make you laugh, and the pictures are just too good!
...in fact, i dabbled in the trade myself way back when (a year or so after this photo of me was taken, i do believe).
and since my 1st grade debut stories ‘how to make a peanut butter and tuna fish sandwich’ and ‘i hate saturday morning cartoons’ i’ve had words at my fingertips and now, they're at yours—
c
in the words of my great aunt, years ago, wish i could still get a letter from her now...
“I want to thank you for the letters you’ve sent me, mail is very special cause the days are kind of slow. So I really appreciate that you take the time to write. But more important the letters themselves – they are delightful, you have a real talent for writing and I hope you will develop it. Obviously you enjoy it because it shows. To be able to express yourself is great – but to be able to do it creatively and entertainingly is very special...”
Let not your tongue mention the shame of another For you yourself are covered in shame and all men have tongues. If your eye falls upon the sins of your brother Shield them and say: 'O my eye! All men have eyes!' لسانك لا تذكر به عورة امرئ *** فكلّـك عورات وللناس ألسـن وعينك إن أبدت إليك معايباً *** فدعها وقل : يا عين للناس أعينُ
nizar qabbani
My lover asks me: 'What is the difference between me and the sky?' The difference, my love, Is that when you laugh, I forget about the sky.
::
train de nuit
o s c a r w i l d e
"i never travel without my diary. one should always havesomething sensational to read in the train."
We are what suns and winds and waters make us
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Image: Richard Leach, 7 Words, Distressed page from old poetry book on
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Unison
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As one
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We breathe
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Hi folks,
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