Finding My Voice

 

Finding My Voice

Deep down in my soul
Feelings, thoughts, stories, ideas
Mine, all mine
Unique to me
Have they always been there?
Probably

Years went by
They stayed deep down
Locked away?
At least on a shelf high up
Where no one could reach them
Nor hear them
Not being shared
For sure not verbalized

Would I always be separated?
At a distance
Yelling deep within a forest
With no one around to hear

But the iceberg started melting
All by reading Black Beauty to my love
At bedtime
1982

Ten years later
Speaking in front of my church
Outside in a park
I spoke of being my brother’s keeper

Some twenty years after that
I read a piece of writing out loud
In front of people I did not know
Bright lights in my eyes
I spoke
Slowly
With cadence
A piece titled "Hold Onto Hope".

Yes

I had found my voice
Completely

But Those Eyes

 

But Those Eyes

I looked around at all the people to photograph.
Forty or so
All with a unique demeanor
All over sixty years old
One might say weathered
I just say a life well lived.
Some on walkers
Canes
There was one young man
Eighteen
Had the GQ look
Handsome
And then I saw him
Locked into his eyes immediately
We connected
His eyes were so expressive
Ninety-eight years old
His eyes were shining oh so bright
His face had years and years of living
His eyes were fresh and sparkling
As if his life story was told through his eyes
Through my camera I gazed at him
At his eyes
Photograph already taken
I imagined these eyes when he was sixty
Forty
When he was a twenty year old.
The same brilliance.
But those eyes
I wanted to look into his eyes
Longer
He is a stranger to me
But I captured an image
In my mind
And camera
That I will hold onto for years
But those eyes.

Come Sit

Come Sit

Here is a seat for you
Just you
I have been waiting
For you
Come sit
Won't you?

Breath in
For just a moment
Feel your lungs expand
Exhale

Still yourself
Just sit
No convo needed
Unless it comes to your mind
Coffee?
I like coffee, and bread
When I sit
Did you see your thought flash by?
In your mind?
Watch it's vibrant color
See your emotion float the other way?
Feel it's sadness, or happiness
They belong to you

I have been waiting
For you
To come sit
Just sit
And be with me.

I am glad you came.

Will I see you tomorrow?

Perspective

Perspective

What am I missing?

I just focus on what interests me
Passing over a huge bucket of beauty
A three year old sees the world uniquely
I follow them for an hour
Seeing their world
Perspective of a kid

An afternoon spent in the meadow
With a beautiful lady, my wife, and her sketchpad
I watch
For three hours
On how she sees
On how she articulates
On how she feels
About the same three hours I am living in
Our three year old grandchild is with us too
Same meadow
Different experience
Two different perspectives



Afterwards I am fascinated
By what she saw
My wife and my grand daughter.
Their view is different
Their view is unique
I value both of these people
And their perspectives

All of today
The day after
I will ponder
Ponder their view on beauty
On art
On drawing and painting
On the simple wonders of the meadow.
On being together
How three hours seemed like 3 minutes
When submersed in beauty
A beautiful meadow
Together
On a beautiful day
With beautiful people

Perspective is a beautiful gem.