Please note that the poems and essays on this site are copyright and may not be reproduced without the author's permission.


Thursday 28 October 2010

Canyonesque


.

File:IrishMannequinNOLAHighsmith.jpg

Irish mannequin in store window during Mardi Gras, New Orleans, Louisiana: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, January 2008 (Library of Congress)


No one asked me where I wanted to be born
said the store window mannequin, but if they had,
I'd have preferred almost anywhere to this festival
of false delights, where the distance between wishes
and dreams is equal to the distance between
promises and lies. That is, it doesn't exist. The deer
do not come down to the water to utter
their spontaneous cries. There's nothing here but concrete.
The deer are legitimately terrified. I too
am terrified. Morning in the canyon, then again night
in the canyon. The gap grows ever more wide
the way the light falls

on a diagonal, the night in its radial aspect
defying meditation. A moon rose in the mind and each thing there
picked up its radial aspect in the night.
Sometime in another other
wise completely ordinary
random century.



http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/04200/04236v.jpg

Slot Canyons, Page. Arizona: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, May 2009 (Library of Congress)

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Public


.

File:Bethlehem Wall Graffiti 1.jpg

Graffiti by Banksy, Bethlehem: photo by Pawel Ryszawa, 2008

File:The Cat.jpg

Stencil by Banksy, City Road, London: photo by LoopZilla, 2005

File:Banksy.on.the.thekla.arp.jpg

Stencil by Banksy at waterline on social entertainment boat Thekla, central Bristol, England: photo by Adrian Pingstone, 2005

File:Bullfighting advertisement Graffited Leganes 2005-08-12.jpg

Anti-bullfighting inscriptions on bullfight advertisement, Leganés, Spain: photo by Juan Garcia, 2005

File:C-barc.JPG

Street art, Barcelona: photo by Mujinga, 2004

File:BrokenPromises JohnFekner.jpg

Urban decay: Falsas Promesas/Broken Promises; Charlotte Street stencils by John Fekner, South Bronx, New York: photo by John Fekner, 1980

File:MYAdisNoAD.jpg

Stencil by John Fekner, New York: photo by John Fekner, 2007

File:Jftoxicleft.jpg

Toxic by John Fekner, Long Island Expressway, Queens, New York: photo by John Fekner, 2007

File:Graffiti politique de Pompei.jpg

Ancient Pompeii satiric graffito caricaturing a politician, found in the atrium of the Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii
: photo by Vincent Ramos, 2004

Catalog Number: HPC-000158
The Juan de Onate Inscription at El Morro National Monumemt, New Mexico, dated 1605. It is the oldest historical inscription at El Morro. (Shows vandalism to the inscription almost from the day it was inscribed). Inscription text: "paso por aq[u]i el adelantado don ju/an oñate del descubrimiento de la/ mar del sur/ a 16 de Abril del 1605". At left: "Casados/1727" and "J[ose?]parelo". At right: "P. Joseph de la Candelaria". Photo by George M. Grant, 1934 (National Park Service Historic Photograph Collection)

File:Jesus graffito.jpg

Second century pagan graffito preserved at Palatine Hill museum, Rome, depicting a man worshiping a crucified donkey. Inscription text: ΑΛΕΞΑΜΕΝΟΣ (ΑΛΕΞΑΜΕΝΟC) ("Alexamenos respects God")
: image by Tablar, 2005

Tuesday 26 October 2010

Fabrication


.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/04800/04802r.jpg

Mural, Route 66, Tucumcari, New Mexico: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, July 2006 (Library of Congress)



for better
or
worse

people
make
art

what
it
is




http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/04300/04317r.jpg

Mural, Baltimore, Maryland: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, September 2008 (Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/04300/04313r.jpg

Mural, Baltimore, Maryland: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, September 2008 (Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/04300/04315r.jpg

Mural, Baltimore, Maryland: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, September 2008 (Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/04100/04106r.jpg

Mona Lisa mural, Columbus, Ohio: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, July 2009 (Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/07000/07065r.jpg

Mural, Dothan, Alabama: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, April 2010 (Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/04200/04205r.jpg

Mural, Mission District, San Francisco, California: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, April 2009 (Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/06300/06386r.jpg

Gas station next to hand painted revolutionary mural, Havana, Cuba: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, January 2010 (Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/06300/06378r.jpg

Mural in Chinatown, Havana, Cuba: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, January 2010 (Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/06000/06070r.jpg

Murals painted on a building on Dragones Street in Chinatown section of Havana, Cuba: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, January 2010 (Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/06300/06304r.jpg

Committee of the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) mural, Havana, Cuba: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, January 2010 (Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/05500/05579r.jpg

Murals painted on abandoned building on Lower Dexter Avenue in Montgomery, Alabama: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, February 2010 (Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/05500/05576r.jpg

Murals painted on abandoned building on Lower Dexter Avenue in Montgomery, Alabama: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, February 2010 (Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/05500/05577r.jpg

Murals painted on abandoned building on Lower Dexter Avenue in Montgomery, Alabama: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, February 2010 (Library of Congress)

Monday 25 October 2010

Election


.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/04900/04986r.jpg

Row houses, Baltimore, Maryland: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, November 2008 (Library of Congress)



beyond
the anxious
private
enclaves
of the very
rich




http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/04900/04987r.jpg

Row houses, Baltimore, Maryland: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, November 2008 (Library of Congress)



a bad
land,

empty,
sad,
abandoned




http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/04900/04988r.jpg

Row houses, Baltimore, Maryland: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, November 2008 (Library of Congress)

A Slice of Empty


.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/04200/04233r.jpg

Old gas station along the road in upperstate Michigan: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, April 2007 (Library of Congress)



The future as Meg will shape it for us offers a full life for everyone, said the paid political commercial.

When I counted her chins, I wondered what the phrase "Hunger in America" might mean to her?

The derelicts and destitutes loitering on the Avenue in the path of the satiated diners exiting the expensive gourmet eatery probably don't have televisions. (This may be a movement Elvis began on that historic night in Vegas when he shot his TV, though in that instance the provocation was relatively innocuous: not the bloated image of a right wing political candidate, merely the mug of Robert Goulet.) Nor do they possess those little black plastic devices the size of playing cards which allow the bonafide citizens of this society to be in touch with each other in every waking moment. For reassurance, I believe it must be. How can one subscribe to an enormous lie without being perpetually reassured everyone else is subscribing too?

So are we having fun yet, my fellow members of the grey majority, earners of 0.00001% of the gross national income?

Is there some part of what this guy's saying that doesn't fit the facts of the present case?



http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/05500/05581r.jpg

Murals painted on an abandoned building on lower Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama
: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, February 2010 (Library of Congress)

Sunday 24 October 2010

Badlands


.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota\n\n18 April, 2010

Badlands National Park, South Dakota: photo by Alan D. Wilson, 2010




Above these Grand Staircases




File:Chinle Badlands.jpg

Chinle Badlands at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah: photo by US Bureau of Land Management, 2004



under these distant skies




File:BadlandsView1.jpg

Badlands National Park, South Dakota: photo by Jsoo1, 2006



beyond our seeing or knowing




http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/04600/04606r.jpg

Badlands National Park, in southwest South Dakota: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 2009



Time is frozen




File:Badlands Drumheller.jpg

Badlands near Drumheller, Alberta: photo by Chensiyuan, 2006


Whose foot prints are these?




Red Shirt Table, Near Hermosa, South Dakota\n\n18 April, 2010

Red Shirt Table, near Hermosa, South Dakota:
photo by Alan D. Wilson, April 2010



I know I am who I am




File:Horsethief canyon.jpg

Horsethief Canyon, close to Drumheller, Alberta: photo by John Johnson, 2007


but not who it is




File:Landschaft bei Göreme 2 11 2004.jpg

Göreme, Cappadocia: photo by Carsten Dörre, 2006



who is going where I am going




File:Panorámica de Las Médulas.jpg

Las Médulas, Nueva Léon, Spain: photo by Rafael Ibanez Fernandez, 2005

This post dedicated to Julia

Return of the Rainy Season (An Oasis in the Badlands)


.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/highsm/04600/04607r.jpg

Badlands National Park, in southwest South Dakota: photo by Carol M. Highsmith, September 2009 (Library of Congress)




tears water the dry fields of memory




http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8c51000/8c51400/8c51439r.jpg

Abandoned farm south of South Heart, North Dakota, Little Badlands in background: photo by Paul Carter, August 1936 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8b27000/8b27600/8b27697r.jpg

Dry and parched earth in the badlands of South Dakota: photo by Arthur Rothstein, May 1936 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8c52000/8c52500/8c52569r.jpg

Badlands, Williams County, North Dakota: photo by Russell Lee, October 1937 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3c00000/3c07000/3c07900/3c07914r.jpg

An oasis in the Badlands (Oglala man, Red Hawk, with horse drinking at an oasis): photo by Edward S. Curtis, c. 1905 (Edward S. Curtis Collection, Library of Congress)

Chicharito: How Did He Do That?


.
Javier Hernandez

Javier Hernandez scores in the 28th minute against Stoke City: photo from The Guardian 10/24/10


The Little Pea's brilliant backward bucking bronco header
against Stoke -- how in heaven's name did he do that?


Friday 22 October 2010

At the Movies


.

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Tulare County, California. Farm Security Administration camp. At the movies: photo by Russell Lee, February 1942




Parables about a Kingdom of Hell whose ruler is not so much a Father of Lies as a Father of Wishes

-- W.H. Auden, in The Dyer's Hand (1962), on the novels of Nathanael West


Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language. This is so partly because of its intricate historical development, but mainly because it has now come to be used for important concepts in several intellectual disciplines and in several distinct and incompatible systems of thought.

The fw is cultura, L. from colere, L. Colere had a range of meanings: inhabit, cultivate, protect, honor with worship...

-- Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised edition, 1983)



Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Movie theatre, Chicago, Illinois: photo by John Vachon, July 1940

Image, Source: b&w film copy neg. from file print

Blue island, Illinois. The Senise family going to the movies: photo by Jack Delano, February 1943


http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8a27000/8a27500/8a27580v.jpg

Man in front of movie theatre, Waco, Texas: photo by Russell Lee, November 1939

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Saturday afternoon movie crowd, North Platte, Nebraska: photo by John Vachon, October 1938

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Tulare County, California. Farm Security Administration camp. At the movies: photo by Russell Lee, February 1942


Photos from Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress