Nothing in this picture tells me what place this is.
Rocks turning green, exposed to salt air
turning white as water retreats and leaves sand patterns behind.
I have no recollection of this day depicted in this photograph.
I'm having trouble making sense of photos, stories, letters and articles
I've accumulated;these subjects must have moved me once.
I only know that the cutting and the pasting was easy and quick and
these tools gave me instant accomplishments.
Thoughtless and careless,
I can stalk everything and everyone, any time of the day and night
hoarding volumes and volumes
that could never leave
tall monasteries, yet
I don't feel power or delight in all this wealth
through a viewfinder.
I feel as though I'm threading water in a lake
saturated with invasive species,full of reeds without redemptive powers
hiding nothing and everything.
What an easy breezy task this is, not worried about remembering facts
from opinions
each position easily reversed with a new set of data
a constant shifting ground
as the next salt-water tide
bleaches space and time
from my grey cells.
Will I still be able to recognize those human intrusions
that will make my heart soar beyond the moment
reach for a pen
jot down a name
a date
an address on a piece of paper that can witness today?
Will my life change if I can no longer tell
what impeding decay smells like?
Will I shed tears in the face of loss
or quickly click the local heroes of comedy until the feeling passes?
8 comments:
i dont like thinking about when i can no longer tell one thing from another...in some ways, not having the attachment to the other memories might make it easier to see the now...maybe not, no anchor..its over far too quick...perhaps pen to paper helps us capture even a moment...
Maybe that's why we *create*... whether it's children or forms of art (painting, writing,etc.) or even shared memories. They make us feel that we've left *something* of ourselves - and it doesn't really matter if it's appreciated or not. And if we gradually forget... we still left these things behind that say 'We were here!' Does that make sense?
It seems to me that sometimes the elderly can remember the past stronger than the yesterday. I have a career that demands remembering and updating and changing...I'm hoping I can make it another 10yrs without being overwhelmed by new technology...once I get there, I won't care what I'll have forgotten about work..hopefully I'll always remember family. No guarantees unfortunately.
Live in the moment. It may be the only one we have.
Rosaria, I, too, am a collector of images.....as the family archivist it is I who gathers the visual memories of our family and keeps them.....for what? Our children, I guess, and theirs. But your comment about images not leaving a tangible trail like a towering monastery, yet being wealth through a viewfinder resonates greatly with me. Yours are always such beautiful words, so eloquently rendered.
Strange how some memories are so strong. I 'm often getting the feeling that life is so fleeting these days (as I get older) I'm sure we will all leave something of ourselves when we eventually move on to something much better!
Maggie x
Nuts in May
Your words are beautiful and moving. Are you a poet Rosaria?
we face a real danger in this modern society but i'm not sure how it differs from the natural falling away from our lives. somewhere the truth lies between the short stories of alistair macleod and the poems of jack gilbert. but my god, we have to find our way through to having our hands upon our lives (UPON our lives) before they are over.)))
xo
erin
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