Monday, April 18, 2011

shad·ow noun \ˈsha-(ˌ)dō\: an inseparable companion or follower


Secret Lives HDR by Ayse Selen Varhan



I Go Back To The House For A Book 
                                            -by Billy Collins

I turn around on the gravel
and go back to the house for a book,
something to read at the doctor's office,
and while I am inside, running the finger
of inquisition along a shelf,
another me that did not bother
to go back to the house for a book
heads out on his own,
rolls down the driveway,
and swings left toward town,
a ghost in his ghost car,
another knot in the string of time,
a good three minutes ahead of me —
a spacing that will now continue
for the rest of my life.

Sometimes I think I see him
a few people in front of me on a line
or getting up from a table
to leave the restaurant just before I do,
slipping into his coat on the way out the door.
But there is no catching him,
no way to slow him down
and put us back in synch,
unless one day he decides to go back
to the house for something,
but I cannot imagine
for the life of me what that might be.

He is out there always before me,
blazing my trail, invisible scout,
hound that pulls me along,
shade I am doomed to follow,
my perfect double,
only bumped an inch into the future,
and not nearly as well-versed as I
in the love poems of Ovid —
I who went back to the house
that fateful winter morning and got the book.


.

6 comments:

Hattie said...

Fascinating photo and poem. We do seem to "miss" each other a lot, don't we.

susan said...

One way to get completely lost in reverie or regret is to start imagining how our lives would be had we taken different paths at particular moments in our lives. The poem isn't about that but it did serve to remind me.

The picture is most mysterious.

Phivos Nicolaides said...

Amazing picture and another great poem. You are so selective my dear Lydia. I love your blog!

Lydia said...

Hattie~ Hmmm, I wondered what that sense of missing something in life was all about! Now about that sense of deja vu'........

Susan~ The poem served to remind me of that also, after you reminded me, that is! Good point.
I know, that photograph is absolutely stunning. When I found this young woman's gallery last night I truly fell in love with her work. A real original photographic eye there.

Phivos~ See my comment to Susan about the photo. Thank you for your nice compliment that made me smile. :)

Stickup Artist said...

Hi Lydia, I naturally hopped right over to check out Ayse Selen Varhan's HDR photography. It was the best I've seen. For me, in most HDR, the heightened colors and detail together go over the top, but her tonality is restrained to excellent effect. So that was great fun for me. Oh, I think I see my shadow self up ahead, and she's calling back to me that the investment in the HDR software is well worth it :-)

Lydia said...

Stickup Artist~ I am glad you went to her site and shared your impressions of her work here. They fascinated me.
I was clueless about HDR until viewing her gallery the other night and since then have read some material I found online. I am really intrigued by it. Your last line is great and intimates that there may be samples of HDR at your blog in the future!

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