Monday 6 March 2017

Different rules



Take nothing but photographs, the sign says
so the strange miracle of the tree’s coaxed
into the camera, the weird, gaunt knots
an odd angle of branch in desert haze


defying understanding. Things will grow
in their rightful places, and photographs
will fade of course, and days, and words, and maps,
not every poem leaves an afterglow -


transience and change, and a certain heave
at turns, the conflict of balance, and light.
Will it be enough - this capture of roadside? -
this effort to take nothing, quietly leave.


The window quickly reconfigures the sky.
The rules are different for passers-by.








I've been looking at old photographs, lots and lots of them., and one of them made it to this poem here.






  





12 comments:

  1. Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints...
    Your poems are an indelible footprint to your journey.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. nothing is indelible unfortunately...or maybe not unfortunately... :) keep trying to reduce the footprint as much as I can...

      Delete
  2. Lovely thoughts, lovely poem.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Some things we can only take in our memory.

    ReplyDelete
  4. photographs and memories - that was an old Jim Croce song and so true, always. Lovely poem

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love those golden oldie numbers! thanks for being here

      Delete
  5. Well composed sonnet. You rhyming couplet carries truths

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Martin. They are different, at least in my experience...

      Delete
  6. Hi Nila - a different approach to remembering a dot in time ... photos - hundreds and I must go through them ... that transcience ... then we remember the scene around that lasts in the memory a little longer, perhaps pulled back to reality of what we saw by the photo when that pull of the shutter was clicked. I've thought of a few lone trees ... Africa calls ... cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can't get the calls of Africa out of your head once you've heard them! Lucky you to go travelling there...enjoy!

      Delete