End-of-Summer Pathos

When the outdoor pot of living decor at Mim's Mediterranean Grill looks like this, 

you can guess that the season is just about gone.

Inside is much more cheerful and my clam basket had so many fries that I couldn't eat them all.

I recently got an autographed copy of a book by my old friend and former cohort,
Gayle Kaune. It's got solid poems inside. I am very happy to have it.

LIGHT AND DARK ARE REVERSED ON FILM

As I click the camera,

light and dark are reversed on film

today's wind ghosts the hair

of children, now grown,

gathered for reunion.

I turn to photograph 

the past: empty swings

rock beside the blind tree

in an overexposed garden,

its statuary reminiscent of baby graves.

  *  *  *

It's all so real, these scenes of domesticity,

they must be photographed by family,

so intimate are the gestures.

In the background people

busy themselves with a violin or a meal.

But the pictures are taken by a poet,

whose only skill is words.

She doesn't realize how happiness

can destroy itself when placed

under glass--doesn't know to set

the meter, the mistake of too much light.

Gayle Kaune

All the Birds Awake, 

Tebot Bach, Huntington Beach CA, 2011, page19

There is quite a bit to think about as one follows the thought in this poem. I am still working on whether I agree or disagree. . .