04 May 2007

half hours on earth, what are they worth? i don't know






I took these shots during the same walk as the laundromat shots. I was fascinated by the Impala (especially the peeling paint), but I had a hard time framing it in a way I was happy with. Still, I enjoyed walking around the car and thinking about the possibilities--what to leave in and what to leave out, what angles to take, and so on.

I'm going to include a poem I wrote a while back in this post--not because I think it's particularly good, just to add some quantity to make up for lack of quality. Also, I had a conversation with some friends last night about Dark Heart boy in Care Bears transforming into a glowing red monkey, and the "dark heart" line in this poem reminded me of that--now I'm imagining Ted Hughes as a glowing red monkey.

Upon Reading Ted Hughes’ Birthday Letters

“A book should be an ice axe to break the frozen sea
inside each of us...”—Kafka

Reading your words,
I felt something dislodge,
a berg breaking free
from the distant shores
of Antartica.
With your honed axe,
you slowly split the sea
frozen inside of yourself,
breaking it into shards
of images and words.
Words that in a dark heart
you forged into jewels,
like the tears Sylvia
sometimes spilled over
an unwritten poem.

There are moments
when Sylvia comes alive,
resurrecting her father over
a table you shaped from elm,
or praying over an empty page,
a poem that refuses to be written.
It is then that I slip
into your dance of ice
with Sylvia’s shadow,
glide beneath piercing words,

and drop off into the rift
where my sea touches yours.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

the first two shots are lovely, mark. that impala is a beautiful blue. if you get to fuck around with photoshop you should try and darken up the first one. the shade in the second one is really awesome and i think you should try and mimic that.

Karen said...

For comments, are you looking for pats on the head and gold stars, constructive criticism, or some happy median of the two. I'm never quite sure and all of Laura's super-happy-nice comments make me feel like a bit of bitch. I am rather bitchy at times, so I don't mind that feeling too much, but I don't actually want to needlessly hurt your feelings.