.
Flower: photo by efo, 15 December 2013
So then he wandered out into the street and began to testify
Something about life being a long journey of the soul
An endless voyaging turning into a voyaging with an end
One knows how but one does not know when
No one yet knows when as the traffic bore down on him
As the traffic bore down on him my mind drifted in the wilderness
Or was it that my mind having been adrift all along
I’ve just grown to regard the wilderness as my resting or laughing place
He cried but those were not yet his last words
As the traffic parted around him as around one charmed
The Way Christian Center with traffic: photo by efo, 8 March 2008
[Untitled]: photo by Joshua Perez (StrangeGoodness), 29 November 2013
Best Fire, Berkeley: photo by efo, 23 November 2013
[Untitled]: photo by Joshua Perez (StrangeGoodness), 25 December 2013
Residence under freeway, Oakland near Chinatown: photo by efo, 4 March 2012
[Untitled]: photo by Joshua Perez (StrangeGoodness), 14 December 2013
Here's where it all ends (Oakland): photo by efo, 15 December 2013
There is something about that flower in the original photo that is so NOT a flower that fits with this poem, which is so painful and true and beautiful all at once. But
ReplyDeleteI am still angry and sad about the hit-and-run, or hit-and take-no-responsibility that you endured. And I am in awe of your ability to keep on keeping on with poetry and art and insights offered daily for all of us to enjoy.
I love the question, Or was it that my mind having been drift all along . . .
I’m lost in thought and at a loss for words about this, which I think is a good thing (except that I need to rouse myself for work). Ages ago in school I remember an English teacher instructing us never to use the adjective “interesting” in a paper, saying (correctly, I suppose) that it was vague and kind of useless. So I’ve always avoided it and also “evocative” for the same reason. Still, reading and seeing “Laughing Place,” and being lost in the journey and voyage it describes (in the wilderness between Newark and California, it seems), I find myself thinking “interesting,” “evocative” and even more vaguely and uselessly, perhaps, but stated with conviction, “real.” In preparing this, I looked up the first two words in the dictionary and I’m satisfied using them. As for “real,” I don’t think looking up the word would be of great assistance. All the photos are great; the final efo picture is a just amazing. Curtis
ReplyDeleteYes, that is so NOT a flower...
ReplyDeleteMore a...
??
And "real", I think, would do fine.
Your sharp edge cuts thin and sometimes almost transparent slices of the All, Tom. Affecting, as usual.
ReplyDeleteNick
Nick,
ReplyDeleteOne tissue-thin laminar slice fits the All; that much we have been told; but it's dim down here in the underground vault beneath the shrine of Our Lady of the Origami Flower, and there are no reading lights in the lead-shielded scanning tube; so which one will it be?