Mono meets color

 One day Rosy Maple

Met Eyed Tiger

Rosy exclaimed

Why I prefer

the world of

Joel Meyerowich

Replied Tiger

And I thought

all the world of 

Alfred Stieglitz

Rescue the perishing

 Rescue the perishing

This is one of my favorite scenes, the Palamedes swallowtail has an ant holding onto its leg, escaping from the green lynx spider on the milkweed.

Canon Fodder

Cannon fodder

John Clare Stokes

When he had a Yashica

The teen said

If only I had a Pentax

I’ll be like Atget 

So he got the Pentax

and he was still like a Yashica man

So he said

If only I had a Nikon

As Eugene Smith

A Pulitzer I’d win

So he got the Nikon

And he got an 

Honorable mention

In the Florida Times-Union

Kodak contest 

He started to tell himself

If only I had a Canon

But by then he said 

If you haven’t done it yet

In these latter sixties

With a Yashica

Pentax or Nikon

Shoot, even a Brownie

No Canon would help

So he just figured there

would only be one Atget or Eugene

and there would have to be

Only one of him

with or without a Canon.

O I wish I

 Oh I wish I

Olustee

Upon the Union entrance

It was good to talk with James Permane at the Gallery last night. He is the commanding general of the Union at Oh I wish I

Olustee

Upon the Union entrance

Snake bit

 one mile of life remaining....the poison in the vein traveling....too far along I had come....so the final mile I would run....set the timer to zero....time to go....crossed the line in four thirty three....what a time to enter eternity....

Did you?

 Did did did did you see the frightened ones...  Did did did did you see the Moccasin come...  Did did did did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter....  When the promise of a serpent free walk....  Uncurled beneath a clear blue sky?   John Floyd

Cats in the cradle

 And the cats in the cradle

In the iPhone consumed

Little boy blue and the man

On the itune

When you gonna look up Dad 

I don't know when, but by then, the wind will be gone

But then you'll be texting.

I know you'll have a great time texting.

Let us labor

 Let us labor

Johnclarestokes 

I think of those now gone on

Some to eternal worlds

Others yet remaining here 

And I’m ever grateful for their labors

In the kingdom not of calloused hands

Men as ZT Johnson of Asbury 

Who helped usher me into the kingdom

A father, Luther Ray, who welcomed me

At the altar of repentance 

There were many following

Razziel at Florida Southern my brother

Mentoring me so lovingly

A long chain of laborers 

From Russell and a community praying

Melanie back to us

To Aaron singing softly to a dying mother

Touching beyond knowing this

Heart prone to hardening

So grateful for the workers in the vineyard 

So looking forward to drinking in

The fruits of their labors one day.

The “first” church

This was the first church my father oversaw the building of, the Sopchoppy Methodist Church. It replaced a grand old wood building upon hindsight I wish they had preserved, along with the old wooden Baptist church behind it. Our white block parsonage is beside it. Today the parsonage is gone, it’s no longer a Methodist church, as years ago they purchased the new brick Baptist Church beside it, who built a new church west of town.

Paw

 Years from now

When we are long gone

People will stop and pause

Saying

Paw was here.

Slip sliding in

Side doors

John Clare Stokes

I never was the sort of front door one, no grand entrance down the main aisle.

Most of the churches I attended had a side door I preferred to slip in quietly.

Some of the slipping was guilt from a Saturday night of slipping and others from sleeping in. 

Early on when my father was the pastor I did not need the side entrance for we were always in place early as we were “examples” for all the sides.

It was only after I was grown that the side

entrance was preferred. For by then, I was no longer an example but one with the side sliders.

Big foot

 He tracked the three patiently

For he was hungry

Come late night fall

To the campfire he did crawl

By dawn's early red canoe

They only found two

So if you make it through Suwannee Shoals

Better pack Jack Links I'm told....

Old Steichen

 Steichen

Old Steichen was

Losing his mind

Never knowing 

Once in time past 

It was him who made

The memories last

By some quirk in the

Wheel with every third

Revolution it would click

Akin to a sound distant

He vaguely recalled

Some days when Steichen

Was in a good frame of mind

He would click the wheels

Like a motor winder 

Not pausing or even 

Contemplating direction

Other days in more the 

Pensive melancholic mood

He would slowly click then

Look

Look then click the wheel

Smiling at the capturing

A foot entering the frame

An orderly passing

The pattern of shadow on 

Carpet

It was the unknown click

In that wheel that kept

Steichen from totally 

Becoming lost in this

Place.