perhaps, the only way to float
to be, truly afloat
is to let slip the anchor
the shackles and rancour
break the chains that bind
the locks inside our mind
and be
afloat
(for wordpress weekly photo challenge – afloat)
afloat on belgianstreets
afloat on belgradestreets
I stumbled, and in doing so, kicked it into the gutter. Again.
I stopped. Knelt down on the hot paving stone. Reached out and felt for it.
Finding it, I picked it up carefully. Anxiously.
I could feel the cold metal surface. The familiar buttons. I knew what happened next.
I turned away from the light. Raised my hand, lifted a corner of the stained bandage from my eye.
I lifted it so I could see the screen. And there it was.
The message.
That simple, clear message, no ambiguity. My breath caught in my throat. I knew that I had to, I had to give it back. I must give it back.
That noise, again, the screeching.
The blinding white light and then.
Then nothing.
Gradually, I became aware of my surroundings.
I stumbled, and in doing so, kicked it into the gutter.
(for wordpress writing 101 – day five)
I have been thinking a lot recently about absolutes.
You know, right and wrong, good and bad, left and right, up and down, inside and out, yes and no, true and false. Perhaps even, lost and found.
What strikes me about all of these absolutes is how little relevance they end up having in life. Well, ok, maybe when you are driving, the concept of left and right is fairly fundamental.
But, I do recall, as I followed the tangential arc of learning, how many things learned as a child had to be unlearned, as I discovered that things “don’t work quite like that”. The mind boggling transition from Newtonian physics where everything is grounded by an apple tree to the insane world of quantum mechanics and the trials and tribulations of Schrödinger’s poor mistreated cat.
The point I am (not) making is that as child we often see things in this absolute sense and it is only later, as life happens to us, that we begin to see the ambiguity of our world in all its glory, and sometimes, its horror.
And then the places that shaped us, that seemed like rocks, foundations, safe havens, gradually slip away. My sister texted me today to tell me she was standing outside my former Hall of Residence at University in London. Or, more correctly, she was standing next to a hole in the ground where it used to be. A similar fate met my boyhood school some years back. My foundations not just crumbling, but demolished and replaced. And in their place, in years to come, someone else’s foundations will take their place.
What a race.
And, so far, I am digressing. Filling space on the white screen in front of me as I build up to write about what I really want to write about. Or, perhaps, what I don’t want to write about at all. But will. And, in doing so, learn and move on.
I intend to write about my father.
About what happened to him. Or what he “happened”. And about the consequences. The final end to the right and wrong phase. The time that Schrödinger’s cat finally bit deep into Newton’s apple.
A story which involves a tennis court, a phone call, a student sitting on the kerb, an elephant slide, a drive through the country.
And, the end of absolute thinking.
(for wordpress writing 101 – day four)
tea for two
is that the way to woo
or maybe it would be better
to open a bottle
or
two?
(for justine’s tea time #8)
once warm flesh, now cold, stone
remembering, now she was alone
fingers on her skin, tracing, heart racing
opening up, exposed, aching to sing
frozen now, those moments lost
oh how, she had never
wanted it, ever, to
end
(for mara’s poetry101rehab – end)
like an iceberg, broken away
i drift, dwindle, diminish
current taking me away
others float, others diminish
my path uncharted
where will i finish
will it ever end, or just diminish
fade away, or, as it started
end, in
collision
(for mara’s poetry 101 rehab)
weaving, back and
forth
his memories clashed
coalesced
the smell of those sneakers
melded and
left him
remembering, how once he knew
where he
fit
(my fifth of five posts in response to a very kind nomination for the “five photos / five stories black and white challenge” from desleyjane and for the “black and white challenge” from albert
(and inspired by a dreadful awakening and by a walk on the edge of town)
(oh, and as my fifth and final nomination, I’d like to invite jane lurie, if she feels so inclined, to share with you her perspective on “how photography helps people to see” through five black and white images and stories…)
*shot also for lucile’s the clinic – photo rehab, and justine’s electic corner #7, with nikon d700, 50mm f/1.4 nikkor lens and edited in aperture 3, photoshop cc, and silver efex pro 2, a layered blend of belgrade and brüssel*
andy townend 