checking in

From time to time I will go back to the small town of Blanco where I grew up. Since my parents moved from there almost 7 years ago, I have lost touch with the place. But it is so fascinating and satisfying to go back to the places that I have trekked over, made a memory in, worked at, or observed in quietness. The grocery store, Super S Foods, is a place that has not changed much over the years, and I wandered in and was immediately swept up with old visions and smells. I was lucky to get the checker, Randall, to pose for me. Perception and memory is a concept I'm interested in, and hope to shoot more things revolving around this personal experience.

Poem 1.9.12

Time & Place

I wake up, a two hour nap. To soft music through the walls

Inside another room. The lights on the floor, the fading gray rain

Winter light coming down. What time is it?

Dreams dreams, states of here and there. What is the past?

I search for you, to make sure you are safe and that you recognize me.

Being drawn down the old dirt road, in between two worlds that

I know well. All confused, all clear.

Awake now, quiet whispers as the night rises up and says

Goodbye to the eve. Always beginning again, perfect timing

And indecision. Love of one good thing can be enough.

scissortail savories & sweets is here!

I took these for my friend KJ, her real name is unpronounceable, for her new business Scissortail Savories & Sweets. I much prefer taking pictures of people, but she asked if I'd take a few of her baked goods as well so I said of course. She makes the best dag gun crust you've ever had, as well as a lemon cream pie. I'm very proud of her for launching out on her own, takes a lot of you know what. We had a great time doing this, and that's all that matters to me.

long time gone

This time last year, I was struggling with happiness and being back from Armenia. No one can watch time float by until it's appropriate to look back on it. And even then, it's always frightening at how fast it goes and sometimes how little things change. But it has been a full year, and looking back feels necessary.

I wrote this back in late January or early February 2011. It is the very first, and only, poem I've written. I want to continue writing poetry this year and experience the magic that happens when the attempt is made.

Poem No. 1

My brain tired, from too much to process

memories and lives lived, it is a beautiful mess.

A road merges with the fork I had to take.

Something from the past comes back to hold my hand,

but I don't know who or what it is. I don't know where to stand.

My center is protected, but that feels lonely.

Those who do not know, cannot fully

make me laugh brightly or lie down in comfort.

And the search carries on, for more, for less. For calm winds

and wild adventure. For wet passion, for perfect control.

For secrets, for the missing.