Photography

chose me to be with her

offering a medium

with the precision of science

and the vision of poetry.

(True to a reclusive temperament,

I studied under a single light bulb.)

This muse is a mistress strange beautiful:

given to fits of temper,

lifting her voice beyond Zone VIII

and as easily able

to bury the artist's soul

in featureless underexposure.

Oftentimes putting aside hands to help,

instead gripping the shutter release...

yes: the cost is great;

yet:

when a mother holds her baby a little closer,

connecting to an image

from under my darkcloth:

the reward is priceless.

Images of curiosity/wonder,

surprise/amazement,

and real awe;

fear/loathing,

loving/losing one's sensibilities;

beginnings/endings:

faces from the past

wide eyes of a newborn

warring elements without/within;

knowing by thinking/acting

lives of a heart...

All these conducted in one artist's photographs.