Saturday, September 12, 2009








evening thunder
a homeless man
comforts his dog




Notes From The Gean







3 comments:

Tito said...

Change dog to falcon, and the image reminds me of an American whom I last saw on the side of the road in threatening weather trying to hitch a lift to Istanbul. Man, beast, the elements... Not sure about the usefulness of the photo here (nice though it is); does it add anything to the poem except seasonal atmosphere? OK, that's where he sleeps. It's nice to have photos, but the sum of the parts must be greater... (that's what I always tell myself). We also experiment with haipho over on the Icebox, sometimes succeeding, often failing. To counterpoint a poem with a picture is really difficult, I'd say. Anyway, I enjoyed both haiku and photo (separately as it were). Thanks.
We are 'go' for our Vestiges joint event with you Bandits. Hopefully we'll be able to put some ethereal, wry or poignant stuff together on Sept. 27 to send you. Please don't hold back with your comments later if you find them hard to understand or missing the mark. It'll be very interesting. We'll value your praise and criticism equally. Good wishes for your one!

bandit said...

You know, its funny, because I wasn't sure, either. I felt a bit compelled to include a photo at this point, and the cardboard mattress was a surprise when I came upon it, illustrative of a more recent phenomenon coinciding with my return to this former working class neighborhood in its further decline.
I agree that it does not juxtapose the poem, as was my feeling reluctantly posting it. Lacking a suitable substitute, I made the decision based in part on a comment by an Austrailian haijin regarding a similar blunt outburst of mine, who said, "that's a view of America I've never seen."
Which is apt in describing a large part of American society. They either don't see, are distracted by meaningless sideshows, or just plain refuse to acknowledge the underbelly of our culture. I wish I had that discipline, though I'd probably be crunching numbers rather than arranging words in such a way. Regrettfully, I thought this might stand, at least in this moment, as a social commentary.
this is not the bed of the subjects of the poem, by the way.

bandit said...

Another run through the recent photo files found this image in a miscellaneous folder. Might this add additional implications?
Thanks for the commentary-always appreciated!