Vestiges of Yesterday's Storm

June 16, 2525

Today  

 Arrogant puffed up clouds 

  roamed the skies 

sunshine glanced 

  through 

patches of blue, 

 

Grey undersides 

  reminded

of their promise.

Vestiges of yesterday’s storm 

  wandered 

    gathered 

Rain splashes

   abruptly, 

at their whim.

Evening air 

  cold ~ damp 

refreshing

Even now

 thunder grumbles 

in the distance

“There is peace even in the storm.”

~ Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Author’s note:  I did not get a photograph of today’s skies, 

but located this photo from June 16, 2025.

Robin Red Breast

It was still early evening 

the sky clear and blue 

a robin landed high in the tree

hopped branch to branch 

settling in the centre of the tree. 

Trying to hurry and be still 

I willed this bird of spring 

to sit still while branches waved. 

Birds, animals and little children 

do not settle in one spot too long 

so regardless of fading light 

I clicked the button on my phone, 

His red breast, hidden in the poor light 

only showed off in black and white.

“Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive.”

~ Elliot Erwitt, documentary photographer

(1928 ~ 2023)

Before the Photo Op

Before the photo op

bees bumbled and stumbled 

drunk on pollen

never staying long

on to the next flower

once ~ 

  twice ~ 

    thrice ~

til the camera was put away.

I grumbled and walked on.

“Where there are bees there are flowers, and wherever 

there are flowers there is new  life and hope.”

~ Christy Lefteri, The Beekeeper of Aleppo

From the Car Window

Silent hills, blanketed in snow that drifted across the lake, through barren bush, 

found the eye of my camera 

to be frozen in time.

“Photography takes an instant out of time, 

altering life by holding it still.”

~ Dorothea Lange, documentary photographer

A Good Photo Op

Sliding into home base. I did 

want more than this cliché, 

a tired old phrase suggesting 

summer time and baseball. It 

snowed today. Snow on snow 

on snow. When I started out, 

it almost felt lovely and calm, 

but when I turned the corner, 

the icy wind blew its cold breath

in my ear. I pulled my hat over  

my forehead, and hunched into 

my heavy gold coat. On my way 

home, my multicoloured scarf,

up around my face and the wind 

in my back, I could barely see the 

city street. I’m used to seeing hoar 

frost on the trees, but the hoar frost

I saw on a little spindly bush looked 

out of place. Never able to resist 

what might be a good photo op, 

I bared my hands and cell phone 

camera to the icy day. It was a 

perfect mating of nature and the 

convenience of human kind ~ 

the little tree, in its dormancy, 

had grown beside a dryer vent 

and was coated with the hot moist 

air ~ scented crystals to pique my 

curiosity on this cold February day. 

“Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Attractions

Temptation to take a taxi instead of the bus was pushed 

aside. The sun was shining and the wind, today at least, 

was calm. It turned out to be 

a good thing, except that I 

was tempted once more at the bus stop where I sat on

a bench painted dark green. I shared a ‘good morning’ to passersby. Then I 

wondered. Do I take a photo of the clouds 

that were called horse tails when I was a kid. 

Was that only yesterday? Or will my bus slide 

by me while I have my head tilted up and 

my eye on the clouds instead being 

vigilant for the #10 bus. But then I saw 

a fish’s mouth, open wide, at the tip of one

of the horse tails. No matter how hard I tried, 

I could not see any bus even 4 blocks away. 

Temptation won out. Such relief to have these 

little temptations call me to account. The #10 

came, I stepped aboard leaving the clouds to themselves.

“Temptation to behave is terrible.”

~ Bertolt Brecht, German poet