Wade Into The Water

The Gathering Storm

2009-06-16T18:54:00.000-07:00

Inauguration Eve 2009

2009-01-19T19:01:00.001-08:00

I spent the afternoon wandering up and down the National Mall today. I'm not sure I will make it downtown for the Inauguration, but I at least wanted to be in the center of where it will all happen. The mood was festive and joyous... both the crowd and mine. It was nice to leave aside the stuff I deal with day in and day out and marvel at this moment in our nation's history. Enjoy.

Suspension

2008-09-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

Spider strand captive
Dancing betwixt branch and earth
Flouting gravity

Sidewalk Serendipity

2008-08-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

Façade

2008-07-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

Behind blossom fair
Gnarled image wrought in scarred knots
Pain cloaked by beauty

Cipher Cafe

2008-06-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

I vanished today.

I was sitting at a sidewalk cafe. I had finished eating the last of my sandwich, and was sipping a cup of coffee. I was in no hurry to get back to the office. The day was pleasant, the breeze fresh. People of every shape and hue were swirling by, on their way to somewhere else.

Then it happened.

I realized that no one was looking at me. Or acknowledging me. Or noticing me. It was as if I did not exist. At that moment, my eyes lost focus on the world around me, and latched onto a spot suspended a few feet above the street. There was nothing there but air... and my attention. The edges around me bent and blurred. I slid out of contact with my surrounding reality.

I vanished.

In the midst of the city, I felt utterly alone. I wandered within my own thoughts, aware of the rush of blood in my veins, the rasp of breath in my lungs. I grasped at ideas, half formed, as they floated just out of reach. Time ground to a halt, hanging poised. Tick. Tock. Tick.

Tock.

The sand began to flow again, hissing relentlessly through the hourglass. The world snapped back into focus, as dozens of conversations coalesced into a polyglot of prose.

I considered my now cold cup of coffee. The breeze had died, and the afternoon heat bore down on my back. I cleared my table, and merged back into the masses.

Shelter From The Storm

2008-06-07T18:40:00.001-07:00

Speed Demon

2008-05-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

Vortex

2008-05-07T18:12:00.000-07:00

Perception bent, skewed
Perspective twisted and torqued
Pathway home. Fear not.

2008-04-21T17:30:00.000-07:00

Beauty can be found
In unexpected places
Outside your front door

Did He Look?

2008-04-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

Did he look beyond
the sweep of cherry blossoms
at Arlington's graves?

Ghost On A Limb

2008-04-13T15:40:00.000-07:00

It happened again.

This time I was walking back from my mailbox. I had a busy day buzzing in my head when I arrived home from work, and it wasn't until dusk that I realized I hadn't checked. There was still a breath of warmth in the air, as the sun, hidden behind high clouds, settled beyond the horizon.

Normally I would be thumbing through my mail as I walked back to my house, culling the junk from the bills from the occasional letter. But it was that moment in the day, suspended between light and dark, when the retinal war between cones and rods reaches its peak. Sharpness replaced by shapelessness, color by shades of gray.

Movement. On the edge of my vision.

Silent and certain.

I glanced to my right. It was a bird, settling onto a limb at my eye level, no more than ten feet away. My mind tried to process what it was seeing. Its size and shape were not right. The gathering darkness fought against my urge to understand, to identify. Then it looked at me.

A hawk.

It regarded me quietly, coolly. After a moment, satisfied that I was too big for prey and too slow to threaten, it pushed off lightly into the night air, wingtips turned slightly upward, skimming away beneath the tree limbs.

I stood there for a moment, reveling once more in the wild freedom of nature, savage and beautiful, thriving in the face of the civilizing hand of man.

Beauty After The Storm

2008-04-04T19:50:00.001-07:00

PetalFall

2008-04-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

Snowy blossoms drift
gently to the path below
Beauty's final act

Shiver

2008-04-03T06:25:00.000-07:00

As I was strolling among the cherry trees, the tranquility of the Tidal Basin was broken every few minutes by passenger jets landing at Reagan National Airport. Looking up at them lumbering overhead, in that location, still sends a shiver down my spine.

Tidal Basin in Spring, Part 2

2008-04-02T04:10:00.000-07:00

Here are some more photographs of my trip to the Tidal Basin. These give the experience a sense of place. The first is the Jefferson Memorial, and the next two are the Washington Monument.

Tidal Basin in Spring

2008-04-01T18:31:00.000-07:00

Today I took some time off, walked down to the Tidal Basin in Washington DC and strolled along the shore. The cherry trees are in full bloom, along with other flowering trees and shrubs. Here is some of what I saw:

A Slice of Life (As Seen Through My Windshield) 4

2008-03-13T19:00:00.000-07:00

For once I was grateful for a traffic jam.

Lunar Eclipse 2

2008-02-22T19:01:00.000-08:00

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-20T18:09:00.000-08:00

Choke Point 2

2008-02-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

A poor decision,

made at the wrong place and time,

can affect hundreds.

Ah, the joys of peninsular living.

A Mid-Winter's Night Dream

2008-02-06T12:01:00.000-08:00

As Old Man Winter continues to hold us in his grip, I thought a change of scenery would be nice. There is a park near my home where I go for solitude and solace. This is a photo I took last fall. Enjoy.

Interstice

2008-02-04T21:25:00.000-08:00

A glimpse, through an interstice caught

--Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

What is this gap
this interstice between souls?

When we are face-to-face
we are constantly, silently gauging the distance

Height
Weight
Appearance

We read each other carefully
a book scribed by culture and convention

Color
Class
Creed

We swirl in the dance immortal
finding smooth corners and sharp edges

Deciding to fight
to flee
to love
to ignore

Then stick was pushed into clay

pigment applied to parchment

pixel input to screen

Speech was separated from voice

Held silent in symbol

Language blossomed

Synonyms sought to express without gesture or tone

And the gap changed

Physical distance grew

Emotional distance obliterated

Touching was no longer limited by space... or time.

Immedi(ate intim)acy created the heady elixir of immediacy.

Breathing different Air but same Spirit

Minds intertwining as limbs never could
Passionate revelation veiled in secrecy

The gap narrowed

The dance, still immortal, gained new and complex steps
Intent once revealed in gesture and eye, dependent on symbol for expression
Sharp edges and smooth corners swirled together in a welter of words

Fraught with
peril
misunderstanding
hurt

Lambent with
possibility
miracle
hope

To stare at a luminous screen pouring out thoughts
To dare hope they might touch another soul
To risk exposure for the joy of expression
To find another in the dark

To reach across the gap, and find a friend.

Impressions On The Journey

2008-01-28T18:23:00.000-08:00

Elbow encounter
Intimate isolation
Side by side - alone

Talking to the air
Bluetooth or insanity
Difficult to say

My flight direct, swift
Luggage took route less traveled
Joyous reunion

-53°C

2008-01-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

Life's breath, flash frozen
Soft tintinnabulation
Whisper of the Stars