Wednesday, May 14, 2008

camera

everything’s slowing down
I have lit the candle
cat sniffing this page
camera freezing life
into little splashes
of light and color
painting hanging patiently
slow metallic drag
of the shutter
ancient shuffle of my feet
punctuation when the shutter closes

light like a haze
pale with slowing down
black cat asleep
white cat
rubbing her pink nose
on this pen
it falls
from my hand
slowly

camera finally clicks closed
last picture inside
but not understood
it let a little light in
each time
I know that now

tt works so slowly
taking so much time
when that was all that’s left
when people have gone
when always only
same places
pictures empty now
images in a mirror
with no one looking

I have become
the book I write in
between black and white
cat bookends
looking up to see
if there are angels
falling from the skies

6 comments:

CANDLELIZARDEGG said...

hi russ, how are you...
this poem, i think is the greatest i'd encounter from you... im inspired.

Pris said...

I like this, Russell.

Now, when do we see some Hawaii photos posted, too?:-)

Russell Ragsdale said...

Hi Gerald! Wow! Thanks for the high praise. I'm honored!

Russell Ragsdale said...

Hi Pris! Thanks for that, sweet lady! I'll download my camera tonight or tomorrow and start putting them on after that. Just got in and have been busy getting caught up at work so it will take me a little bit. Hang on, they're coming!

faye said...

love this poem! it made me wonder about the emotions that can readily be felt in between the lines...

Russell Ragsdale said...

Hi Faye! Yes you are right, this poem's pretty full. When I started writing this, I was tempeted to make another poem out of the one that was inside this one. I just eventually decided to keep them together bucause they both seemed to be parts of each other. In fact they were engaged in some kind of conversation. This is definately one of those cases when a poem very distinctly has an important inner life. Thanks for that perceptive comment, sweet lady!