Monday, September 3, 2012

Still Life



Years have sliced me

Into little squares.

Flat, shiny jewels

So exact and so still

Quaint, noiseless frames

Captured and hoarded

To fill my book.



It is a known fact

That people have traded everything

For just about anything

But I have never known anyone

Give up photos for something else.

Life in a capsule

Some bitter, some limited

Others contained and coated

With saccharine smiles.

It really depends on

How one wants to be remembered.



They say there comes a time

When one questions and despairs,

Like asking a prestidigitator

To pull out a rabbit from a hat

Or to agitate ancient moss at the bottom

Of a pond. Anything.





When I, a lover of words

Could never make heads nor tails

Out of rhymes

That used to give me chills.



Baby pictures seem to be a favorite.

The first smile, the teeth nonexistent and guilt free.

The wedding picture, execution style.

A façade, bricked off by the layer of lies

We try so hard to believe.

We bleach everything

From pillows to blankets,

Repair the damage good as new

Iron the edges (take no hostages!)

There’s nothing we can’t do

To make everything perfect in a photo.

After all, it’s just about lighting.



At night I’d flip

Through my treasure

Eyes growing sharper

Memory growing dim

The sharp edges cutting my finger

Until it bleeds.


Shared with Real Toads.  Hello poets!

14 comments:

  1. Photographs definitely do have value and are so nice to 'flip through' at times. There is something special about holding a REAL photograph in one's hands. This seems to becoming a thing of the past in a digital age. I wonder if we will regret that some time MUCH later on in our lives.

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    1. Yes, Mary. Just like holding a book in your hands... It's a little sad . for the younger they don't seem to mind a bit.

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  2. The saying is, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

    Old ones bring memories, new ones prolong precious moments, others refresh, all directing our thoughts.
    ..

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    1. Hi, Jim.

      Pictures are the most precious things we keep.They're like memories we keep in our pockets.:)

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  3. "But I have never known anyone

    Give up photos for something else."

    Very true!

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  4. My mum had an old handbag in which she kept all of her 'treasures'
    It was full of photographs of all of us and little square cards of each baby born that they gave you in hospital with sex/weight/time of birth etc etc. She had see through white lace gloves which belonged to her mother. Locks of hair in envelopes. Old theater ticket stubs. And, I was lucky enough to have it when she passed away. The photographs are memories.
    This poem is so good for its imagery and its truths. The youth will never understand what it feels like to hold real photographs in their hands before much longer.

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  5. Wow... I love "saccharine smiles"...

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  6. "The first smile, the teeth nonexistent and guilt free.
    The wedding picture, execution style.
    A façade, bricked off by the layer of lies
    We try so hard to believe."
    2 of the many slices the narrator is sliced into, now that she remembers only through them and her bleeding fingers. The first, second, and last stanza's are clearest to me in the progression, bu the other two contain moments that I want to kinow--probably as much or more as she!

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  7. Photos--I call them pictures--can certainly be a refuge in a sea of uncertainly.
    There are some stunning lines in this poem.
    I especially was moved by the description of babies: "teeth nonexistent and guilt free".

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  8. "after all it's just about lighting" How we do try to bleach and perfect an image to often hide the blemishes of life lived outside the photograph. This is an amazing piece!

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  9. We bleach everything...

    At night I’d flip
    Through my treasure
    Eyes growing sharper
    Memory growing dim


    Oh, what a nice spin this is on the nostalgia of photo albums - life ordered and polished the way we want to see it!

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  10. I love the way you have written this :D You have written some awesome stuff on this space :D

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  11. Sometimes we need to put down the camera and enjoy the moment instead of capture it, however, some of the photos I have are very treasured and can take me back to times when my heart was so happy. Great writing, I loved this.

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  12. WOW! This is a spectacular write! The closing lines especially. Whew!

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