Episodes

  • Lessons from the Wind ~ NaPoWriMo Day 18
    Apr 18 2024

    Day 18 of NaPoWriMo 2024

    The drive down Newfoundland's west coast from L'Anse Aux Meadows, the site of North America's only confirmed Viking settlement, reminds me a little of California's glorious Mendocino highway. It was very windy that day.

    Better formatting in the post, along with an audio reading of the poem.

    * Lessons from the Wind *

    Wind bends the grasses
    Agitates the sea
    Riffling waves roll
    From water onto land

    While I remain unperturbed
    Steadfast
    Face into the wind
    As all around me
    Is buffeted

    And this
    This is how I want to be
    In the storm that is life
    Where I am disturbed
    By all that moves around me
    Perturbed by the rushing flow

    I take note
    Learn the lessons nature offers
    Resolve to become

    Resolute as the rocky shore
    Firm against the crashing waves
    Supple as the grasses
    Which bend then return to form
    Deep as the ocean
    Calm beneath its roiling surface

    The wind
    Whispers in my ear

    Learn this
    And you will become peace


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    About the photograph:

    Lessons from the Wind
    Highway 430, The Viking Trail
    River of Ponds
    Newfoundland, Canada
    Taken during travels, 2023


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    A reading from the blog post:
    Lessons from the Wind: https://pixtowords.com/2024/04/18/lessons-from-the-wind/
    From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

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    1 min
  • The Fall ~ NaPoWriMo Day 17
    Apr 17 2024

    The Fall

    I fall
    A cascade
    Out of the mist
    Down the rocky narrows

    Seeking the still
    Cool waters
    Their calm

    But there is no pool
    Only the decline

    Until I am reduced


    To a trickle



    Then




    nothing

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    Less than 1 minute
  • Monkey Business ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #360
    Mar 11 2024

    A macaque shares the rooftop
    Lingers on the rail
    As the rising sun stokes
    The smoke laden atmosphere
    To molten amber

    It's tempting to believe
    The monkey is as enthralled as I
    With the iconic Red Fort silhouette
    But I rather suspect the bugger's
    Feigning disinterest in my breakfast

    They're clever that way
    To stray any further from the table
    Set lavishly with silver and crystal on white tablecloth
    Would invite a blitzkrieg
    And the confiscation of my croissant

    It's what I would do were our roles reversed

    Fortunately, this angle is perfect
    And near enough the table for deterrence
    As the shutter clicks
    I thank my little gray enemy
    For the perfect pose

    The croissant is delicious
    Slathered with raspberry jam
    I chase the last of it down with espresso
    While the disappointed macaque lumbers off
    In search of its own breakfast

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    About the photograph:

    Rhesus Macaque with Red Fort
    Rooftop of Tara Palace Hotel
    Chandni Chowk (Old Delhi)
    New Delhi, India

    Taken during travels, 2017

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    A reading from the blog post:
    Monkey Business ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #360: https://pixtowords.com/2024/03/11/monkey-business-pic-and-a-word-challenge-360/
    From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

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    The Pic and a Word Challenge is a weekly creativity prompt offered Mondays.

    With each challenge I provide a photograph of mine along with a single word. The challenge? Use the pic and/or word as inspiration to create something -- a photograph, a painting, podcast, video, prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, longread or just a few words. You are welcome to use these two elements (photograph and word) literally, thematically or metaphorically. If you create both images and words, all the better.

    Challenge rules are provided in the blog post link above.

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    2 mins
  • Contrast in Wan Light
    Mar 10 2024

    Sol yet plays coy with leaden horizon
    But there is enough magic
    In dawn's wan light
    To illumine the contrast
    Of ancient glory
    Astride modern poverty
    While camera and I
    Find beauty in both

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    About the photograph:

    Contrast in Wan Light
    Chandni Chowk (Old Delhi) and Red Fort
    New Delhi, India

    Taken during travels, January 2017

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    A reading from the blog post:
    Contrast in Wan Light: https://pixtowords.com/2024/03/10/contrast-in-wan-light/
    From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

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    Less than 1 minute
  • Half a World Away
    Mar 9 2024

    You with those sad eyes
    In the sallow light
    Backdropped by electric blue

    And me with the glass eye
    Recorder of moments
    Context only by supposition

    I could not ask you then
    What countenanced such sorrow
    Or was it just an unguarded moment

    Emotion apparent in an unintended gesture

    I am left only with guesses
    While you cannot even know
    Someone reflects on this moment

    From half a world away

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    About the photograph:

    You With Those Sad Eyes
    Chandni Chowk market (Old Delhi)
    New Delhi, India

    Taken during travels, January 2017

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    A reading from the blog post:
    Half a World Away: https://pixtowords.com/2024/03/09/half-a-world-away/
    From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

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    1 min
  • Existential Parade
    Mar 8 2024

    This parade of life
    This hubbub of trade
    Of needs
    Of desires
    This chaos of order
    And community

    And here am I
    Amid the throng
    In the moments between
    Want and have
    In the choices between
    Necessity and pleasure

    This is existential quandary
    Alone in my thoughts
    In a sea of solitary moments
    Each a universe
    Borne from a solitary mind
    Known only to itself

    These in parallel all
    With the essentials
    Of desire
    And necessity
    A flurry of universes
    Sharing a single dimension

    While in my universe
    The bodies of a thousand strangers
    Dance in cadence
    With the flow of trade
    A performance at once
    Exquisitely mundane and beautiful

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    About the photograph:

    The Parade of Life
    Chandni Chowk market (Old Delhi)
    New Delhi, India

    Taken during travels, January 2017

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    A reading from the blog post:
    Existential Parade: ⁠https://pixtowords.com/2024/03/08/existential-parade/
    From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

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    1 min
  • Moments I'll not Remember
    Mar 5 2024

    In motion
    I am still
    In stillness
    I am empty
    In emptiness
    I find no peace

    Hollow
    Haunted
    Vacant

    Amidst this familiar pandemonium
    I alone am solid
    Yet invisible

    Carrying as passenger
    A pain which pays no fare
    Answers no questions
    Offers no solutions

    The me of this moment
    None will remember
    Not even I

    But here
    The pain shuffles off
    Into the crowd
    And I will not remember it either

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    About the photograph:

    Bicycle Rickshaw Driver
    Chandni Chowk market (Old Delhi)
    New Delhi, India

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    A reading from the blog post:
    Moments I'll not Remember: https://pixtowords.com/2024/03/05/moments-ill-not-remember/
    From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

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    [talk]

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    1 min
  • Manifest Colour
    Mar 2 2024

    Suffocating smoke
    Smothers glimmer and glee
    Even the sun subdued
    To wan gloom
    Long before it sets

    Still

    I know colour lingers beneath
    Recall its effervescence
    Manifest the latent joy
    Until that rises above the horizon
    Of my heart

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    About the photograph:

    p>Latent Colour
    Rishikesh
    Uttarakhand, India

    Taken during travels, 2017

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    A reading from the blog post:
    Manifest Colour: https://pixtowords.com/2024/03/01/manifest-colour/
    From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

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    In 2017 I spent several weeks in northern India, visiting New Delhi, Agra (the Taj Mahal and Red Fort are there), and Varanasi (Hinduism's holiest city). The atmosphere all across the north was thick with seasonal agricultural smoke as the freshly harvested fields were set on fire in preparation for planting the next crop. By the third week, my cough had become chronic. A deep breath would start a coughing fit.

    Delhi's air quality regularly clocks in as the most unhealthy on the entire planet. But Agra and Varanasi seemed not much better. I left Varanasi earlier than I would have liked. It's such a spectacularly unusual and deeply affecting place. But the air was just getting worse, becoming so bad the morning of my departure the flight was delayed for a few hours due to lack of visibility.

    Rishikesh, at the base of Himalayan foothills, was a considerable improvement. But even there the smoke would, from time-to-time, creep into the valley, as it did the evening I took this photograph.

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    2 mins