Stone by Stone

Photo by and copyright Neil Alexander.

Stone by Stone

Vines inhale the flesh

The world atone

Stone by Stone

Memories of the haunted-hallowed moan

Of all we’ve wrought, kingly mess

Stone by Stone

Humanity stripped, to rise afresh.

* Hello, all. This, obviously, is my submission to One Shoot Sunday over at One Stop Poetry. It’s more than that, though. I hope you all enjoyed my interview with the talented Neil Alexander, but if you get to the end, you may have noted a little send-off from me and Adam Dustus. Today marks our second-to-last One Shoot Sunday venture.

Without getting into the whys too terribly and boring you all with the details, I’ll suffice to say, sometimes the path splits, and the trail leads us somewhere new. Photography, as writing, is one of my passions in life, and it has been a wonder for me to meet so many talented photographers and to share their insights with you all. It has been a magical thin for this reporter. Yet real life is coming at me something fierce right now, and in a couple months, I’ll be moving to Colorado. It will be wonderful, and the place is certainly a beauty – I cannot wait to go. In the meantime, I’m packing. I’m working freelance. I’m bidding farewell to old friends. And with everyone else departing at One Stop, it seemed, for me, the time to tip my hat to the crowd.

You all have been wonderful, I say that honestly. I have so enjoyed your poetry – and will CONTINUE to enjoy your poetry in the months and years to come. This corner of the blogosphere – it is a wonderful thing, filled with so many creative and wonderful people. I hope you will continue to visit me as well, as I’ll not be leaving….merely because I’m stepping down from One Shoot doesn’t mean I’m departing into a moonless night…I’ll be here, still doing what I do, and enjoying every moment of it.

Cheers, everyone. It has been, and still is, a pleasure.

Fettered Rise

Image by © Chris Galford.

Darkness

Begets salvation.

–

Closed eyes embrace

Wide-spaced longing,

Riveted in fire like

Old angels lacquered

With the doubt—

–

The weight,

They will come to call it,

It lies heavy on the backs

That would toil clouds

To submission.

–

Naked passions

Circumvent the sense of it,

Armani dreams, Gucci heart

Wing-tipped longing stands

Fleshy and forgotten.

–

Icarus saw this

Falling.

* My latest work for One Shoot Sunday. Based on the images I provided this week when I graffiti’d One Stop. Yes, that’s right – my travels around Lansing have yielded a great deal of graffiti photos, and this week we decided to plaster this little offering of rebel-art up for all you fellow poets to pour over. So have a look, see what catches your fancy, and enjoy!

Stooped Celebration

"The Bootmaker," image property of Rob Hanson.

Stooped celebration

Thread by thread

Stringing out the walkers

Life of leather—

Toiling at the standing grace

Of other souls.

 

Breaths ride the strands,

Divinity locked in rasping labor;

Noon passes stained glass

With a smile—

the hands know but the one song,

they cannot sing it with regret.

* My latest work for One Shoot Sunday. Based on the prompt from my interview this week with HDR photographer Rob Hanson. Be sure to check back in next week as well, for part two of the interview and more of Mr. Hanson’s lovely work.

Cover Up

Image by and copyright Walter Parada.

Red rivers ride

fluttering flags.

A smile and a hand, freely offered

belie the tip—

it’s not a stick you know

that I’ll stick you with,

not a dream doused with dreamers.

God or Man

the mortar drips

beneath the marble—

just a dab of purity to hide

stained hands,

strawberry walls—

Humanity

drifting.

* A piece for this week’s edition of One Shoot Sunday. This week features an interview I had with the talented Californian photographer Walter Parada. I was very grateful for the images he chose to share with us, as I find them all to be absolutely striking, from his landscapes to his portraits, and on to the image featured above.

Birds in Flight

Picture copyright Fee Easton.

Feathered summer bright

In taloned march sing madness

Death—one season’s end.

A piece for this week’s edition of One Shoot Sunday. There’s no interview by me (had a couple weeks off, you know?), but several lovely prompt choices to select from a generous old friend of One Stop: Fee Easton. You may remember my earlier interview with her back in March. A wonderful woman with some very vivid photography. This was my response to her “option 3” photo.

Blood and Beauty

Picture by and copywrite Rosa Frei.

Sucking at the grains,

the eyes, weather-beaten portals

portray, in absolution,

the sifting sands in hourglass

like B-52 roar, the revelation

of dry ocean repetition,

the ships always setting sail never

finding anything but mirage—

blistered empty wounds

singing long after they have sung,

these eyes, these hands left

to cover blood and beauty.

* My submission to this week’s edition of the One Shoot Sunday Photo Prompt, with this moving bit of portraiture care of Rosa Frei. Check out my interview with her, and join in the poetry fun!

Just thoughts

Photo by (and copywrite) Greg Laychak.

It is a long hall we walk,

Reflections of decisions

Hung in windows,

Rain-spattered and sun struck

The stains of time rolling down

Like tears, never wept

In the dawning

When other voices rang

Rhythm, rhyme, reduced

Where they set us yet to roam.

Everything is painted now—

Just thoughts.

Drift Away

 

Photo by Lauren Randolph.

Gravity

Saw me once beyond

The color and the clouds—

In hydrogen dreams it called

Imagination but a fluke.

Dancing on the sea-sky

I left it all

Below.

* My submission to this week’s edition of the One Shoot Sunday Photo Prompt, with a colorful shot from award-winning photographer Lauren Randolph. Check out my interview with her, and join in the poetry fun!

Inspired by @ChasingTao!

Reverent crystal—

The eyes look through it darkly

Raindrop hopes in green.

Silence smoothes visions.

Lapping at the sea, he bears

Life upon his tongue.

* My short submissions to this week’s edition of the One Shoot Sunday Photo Prompt, featuring a picture from One Stop’s old friend, ChasingTao. Not only am I interviewing this week though, I’m also hosting, as Dustus is out and about in New York City, along with Moondustwriter and Brian Miller, for the Shorty Awards. Be sure to put on the live stream at the Shorty Awards’ website tomorrow to see if One Stop takes home an award for the arts!

Coughing Camels

Photo by and copywrite Fee Easton.

It began with little Indians

rolling crude

puffing psychoactive spirituality

in lieu of peace signs in the sand.

Pet plants petted

coughing Camels patronizingly,

coaxing out life

one voice at a time.

Every breath breathes history

says the shaded mammal;

it sucks it up in fossilized harmony

and spits it out, in yellow –

it’s just shades of grey anyway

where humanity soars

out on a lung.

* My submission to this week’s edition of the One Shoot Sunday Photo Prompt, with that emotionally charged picture provided by one Fee Easton. I’ll be honest, this one’s still a work in progress; not entirely satisfied with how it turned out, but for the moment, it will do for this week’s prompt. As for Fee, well, she’s a fantastic photographer – be sure to have a look at my interview with her when you get a chance. You won’t come away disappointed…and while you’re there, check out all the other poets inspired by the prompt!