Conversations — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Lovers
Learn from yesterday
Laugh about today, but
talk about
tomorrow
— John Boynton
Archive for the ‘Capturing the Moment’ Category
Conversations 2 comments
Lovers
Birds, Banana, Joy, and Buddy Guy 1 comment
Joy — Image by kenne
Ode To Joy
Friedrich Schiller called Joy the spark of divinity
but she visits me on a regular basis,
and it doesn’t take much for her to appear—
the salt next to the pepper by the stove,
the garbage man ascending his station
on the back of the moving garbage truck,
or I’m just eating a banana
in the car and listening to Buddy Guy.
In other words, she seems down-to-earth,
like a girl getting off a bus with a suitcase
and no one’s there to meet her.
It’s a little after four in the afternoon,
one of the first warm days of spring.
She sits on her suitcase to wait
and slides on her sunglasses.
How do I know she’s listening to the birds?
— Billy Collins (In The Atlantic, November 2021)
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Its Veteran’s Day, 2022 2 comments
Sgt. 1st Class Lance Amsden, platoon sergeant for the 1st Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne),
25th Infantry Division, watches as CH-47 Chinook Helicopters circle above during a dust storm at Forward Operating Base Kushamond, Afghanistan, July 17,
during preparation for an air-assault mission.
— Army Flickr Stream
On this Veteran’s Day, in honor of those who served and died, I share this song written and recorded by Tom Russell, which was also recorded by Johnny Cash.
One of the blogs I follow is So Far From Heaven. Old Jules writes about his old running buddy, Phil:
“I hadn’t thought about my old running buddy, Phil, for a while. That last blog entry got me chewing on thoughts of him. I’ll tell you a bit more about him.
Phil went to the Marine Corps as the result of being a 17-year-old driving from Temple, Texas, to Austin with a case of beer in the car. A Williamson County Sheriff’s Deputy stopped him on a tail light violation, asked for his driver’s license, and saw the case of beer. Old Phil, being a clever youth, gave the officer a Texas Drivers License with an altered date of birth so’s to keep from being arrested as a minor in possession of alcoholic beverages.”
Veteran’s Day
Well I used to hang out down at the VFW hall
And stare at the photographs up on the wall
Of the neighborhood boys that died
in the wars we’ve been through
And the hand lettered sign that said
remember Jimmy McGrew
Well Jimmy went to Nam back in 1965
But there’s a lot of men here that think
Jimmy McGrew’s still alive
Though they carved his name
on a stone in Washington DC
His brother said that stone
don’t prove a thing to me
It’s veteran’s day and the skies are gray
Leave the uniforms home cause
there ain’t gonna be a parade
But we’ll fill up a glass for the ones
that didn’t make it through
And leave a light in the window tonight
for Jimmy McGrew
Well I used to hang out down at the VFW hall
And stare at the photographs up on the wall
Of the neighborhood boys that died
in the wars we’ve been through
And the hand lettered sign that said
remember Jimmy McGrew
Well Jimmy went to Nam back in 1965
But there’s a lot of men here that think
Jimmy McGrew’s still alive
Though they carved his name
on a stone in Washington DC
His brother said that stone
don’t prove a thing to me
It’s veteran’s day and the skies are gray
Leave the uniforms home cause
there ain’t gonna be a parade
But we’ll fill up a glass for the ones
that didn’t make it through
And leave a light in the window tonight
for Jimmy McGrew
— Tom Russell
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Memphis Blues Leave a comment
Memphis Blues — Image by kenne
I was always drawn to the roots music, bluegrass, blues, early rock – Sun Records, Elvis [Presley].
And I still love that music to this day. Memphis never gets the credit.
It’s much more musically rich than Nashville ever will be.
Nashville manufactured that hokey-hillbilly image way back.
–Steve Young
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Dried Weed Leave a comment
Dried Weed — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Timeless Moments
There’s a trail down by the wash
Where once new life grew
Providing a new beginning
That has turned into an end.
All manner of things
Shall be well, providing a
Pattern of timeless moments.
— kenne
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Second-Graders At Sabino Dam 2 comments
Second Grade Class Participating in SCVN Field Trip To Sabino Canyon — Image by kenne
A day with nature
Loving the time together
Excitement for all.
— kenne
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A Walk By The Wash 2 comments
Down By The Tanque Verde Wash (Tanuri Ridge) — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Whole Lot of Something
I have something to say,
I don’t know why.
It came in a walk
No matter where I walk,
I hear it calling
In a moment
In and out of time
Imposing a pattern in
All that I have been
Hoping for peace
If not peace, clarity
In the place we live
Where there is a
Whole lot of something.
— kenne
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Sunrise On The West Coast of Mexico Leave a comment
Sunrise On The West Coast of Mexico (01/07/07) — Image by kenne
A bay off the Mexican west coast
the rising sun glistens around a
half sunken military boat near
a sleepy coastal village covered
with a yellow-to-gray haze.
If it is true, everything is good
fades away with time,
it is also true that rust awaits
metal resting in saltwater.
A cruise ship sat at the
entrance to the bay —
gone the sailors and hookers
up the dusty road to Tijuana —
only to be buried standing,
buried facing west.
— kenne
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Tucson’s All Souls Procession Leave a comment
The All Souls Procession Weekend Honors the Ancestors and our lost loved ones and Celebrates Life — Photo-Artistry by kenne (11/04/12)
What is the All Souls Procession?
“The All Souls Procession is one of the most important, inclusive, and authentic public ceremonies in North America today.
The Procession had its beginnings in 1990 with a ceremonial performance piece created by local artist Susan Johnson.”
This weekend (November 4-6), Tucson will honor the dead and celebrate life with the 33rd Annual All Souls Procession.
******
A THIN moon faints in the sky o’erhead,
And dumb in the churchyard lie the dead.
Walk we not, Sweet, by garden ways,
Where the late rose hangs and the phlox delays,
But forth of the gate and down the road,
Past the church and the yews, to their dim abode.
For it’s turn of the year and All Souls’ night,
When the dead can hear and the dead have sight.
— from All Souls by Edith Wharton
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All Souls Dragonfly Leave a comment
All Souls Dragonfly — Infrared Image by kenne
November in the Sonoran Desert.
Land of indigenous cultures
Whose names are true to nature.
Ghosts whose shadows grow wings
Standing in the graveyard
That has become a holy vortex.
The owls of the night carry
Voices whispering death is alive.
Dragonflies rest on dead stems only
To fly away, circle, and come back
Recognizing all the souls of the dead.
— kenne
(Inspired by lines in Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Tijuana Book of the Dead)
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Black Mountains Highway Leave a comment
Black Mountains Highway Into The Sunset In Northwest Arizona — Image by kenne
“And soon it is nothing but beautiful warmth and wind and speed and sun down the empty road.
Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive.”
— from Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
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Hiking to Manning Camp Leave a comment
Moonrise Over The Black Mountains — Photo-Artistry by kenne
We reached Mica Mountain as the sun was setting and set up camp two hours out from Manning Camp; our expected goal where we would get water and spend the evening. However, we did not have enough water to spend two nights in the mountains, so we decided we would turn back in the morning. Before setting up camp we watched the sunset and the moonrise.
Cold out! Feels like winter as we crawl into our sleeping bags. It must be the altitude. The full moon provided light, no warmth. The night was long. The tarp above us was attached at only three corners since Tom wanted one loose to flop in the wind, making noise that would keep the bears away.
After a long night of wind-driven noise and cold temperatures, we broke camp early to arrive back at the trailhead before the expected temperatures in the mid-nineties. As we reached a lower elevation, we could contact Tom’s wife, Pat, to give her our expected arrival time at the trailhead. Once we got our stuff in the car, all we could think of was going to Risky Business for a cold beer and French fries with mayo.
— kenne
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An Autumn Sunrise On Mt. Lemmon Leave a comment
An Autumn Sunrise On Mt. Lemmon — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Signs of autumn echoes
Throughout the forest
As time present becomes
Time past in a moment.
As the aspen leaves
Dance in the breeze
There is only the dance —
Neither moment from
Nor towards.
— kenne
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Saguaro Sunrise Leave a comment
Saguaro Sunrise — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Saguaro stands tall
Stately as the sun rises
Desert royalty.
— kenne
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On Mt. Lemmon’s Aspen Trail Leave a comment
On Mt. Lemmon’s Aspen Trail — Image by kenne
To my poet friends, how many have had the following experience?
Reading a poem to and audience, years
after its having been published
or even revisited, I discovered a word
that should have been another, an edit
that was so obvious to me—the apt word
stealthily entering my consciousness—
I stumbled over it, embarrassingly
losing my train of thought, nervously
shifting my weight, pussyfooting—
my feet doing a little dance, behind
the speaker’s stand, my mind
in a state of reorganizational panic
as when the face of a former lover, emerges
from memory and lightly touches something
strangely new, something ethereal . . .
— from The Edit by David M. Parsons
Becoming is Superior to Being 