Murray Robertson (photography & poems)
I make photographs and poems to please myself (and share them to please you).
October Oak as daylight hours decrease trees will lose leaves these colours come around each fall green leaves grow dim changing colours almost overnight one day you see a bright orange tree and suddenly know october's back again summer cumulus clouds become cirrus nights become chilly the time comes for fall gardening jobs there are shrubs to trim many leaves to rake soon it will be too cold you know we're going into winter's deadly cold most importantly see and enjoy the colours
Party Colour
some colours scream,
there is a party going on
somewhere nearby,
loud and exciting.
at some parties,
people act foolishly
if properly encouraged.
shout and scream
fall down without tears.
purple and yellow,
bright orange like
sunshine,
a little bit of green!
january flowers
are found indoors,
and seem to be so
out of context
with the season.
the bright colours
cheer us though,
which has value
now that all our
winter celebrations
are over and
the lights are off.
tiny trucks deliver to tiny shops, as if there was room on roads. pedestrians learn quickly. out of the way! (no suitable translation springs to mind.) everyone moves aside, quickly. tiny trucks go slowly by. white-painted roads in a beautiful place. tiny trucks leave no dirty tracks on the streets. shops sell a few amazing things: exquisite art, a bowl: carved of ancient olive, grown thousands of years ago. cool shade is an under-rated blessing. just stay cool!
ruins and palms
have little value
in my daily life.
in my memories
they are magical.
stories of ruins,
of the things
that happened
there and there,
well I know that
i ought to say:
something's
very special
about the stories
i don't want to hear.
like the palms,
they are not
related to my
own stories,
or my life.
they have a very
different mesage,
maybe, while i
might have none.
my own stories or my life
nothing important,
because i must be
about as important
as an ant in a hill.
would i like to be
more important?
what kind of
responsibility
comes with that?
maybe to be an ant
is enough.
and what about
the palm and its
importance?
and the wall?
drifting along a beautiful seawall on an island, they have no agenda, nor purpose. nothing's important on a day like this. quarried stone holds back waves, waves breaking unnaturally on hard stone. make no mistake; any rock weathers on these edges. some last longer than others. these stones last longer than we do. for us the people are always the story. and here, the story is that the people do not seem so very important. not much going on, no real dramas are unfolding. the drama here is all unseen, and unseeable, or maybe the drama is the landscape.
somewhere near, a road-building project destroyed a historic wonder, i made a photograph: a very old log house. sunburned from probably a century of summer sun. logs turned rich brown and black, cracks filled with old white plaster. whitewash, maybe. i don't know the stories i can't see. i can always believe nonsense; it's a very human thing to do. the creek flowed silently past the old log house. maybe it was drinking water, though today it looks murky, a bit dangerous. old stories are impossible to prove, a bit murky, digging for truth a little quirky we turn over stones, looking to see clues to untold stories, stories we can't see.
she's such a
gruesome
creature,
waiting quietly
for something
foolish enough
to wander
close enough.
she will
pounce and
sink fangs in
deep enough
to inject her
poisonous
venom.
two workmen
watched me
capture
her image,
to make this
photograph,
from what they
considered a
safe distance.
her bite might
not be fatal
for someone
my size.
it might make
me very sorry.
and sorrier,
her mate,
who i am not,
may be killed
and eaten.
i am not him,
and keep my
safe distance.
she is so
beautiful in
her hunger,
almost a
majestic
creature,
with such
gruesome
expectations.
she is amazing,
a thing of wonder.
springtime, in the floral department, looks like this. many times, in a long cold winter, we craved warmth, wanting what we did not have. maybe it's always springtime, in the floral department, i wouldn't know. there are things that i don't need to see or hear or say.. but i fear that i am no wise monkey, and see so much that makes me sad. springtime, in the floral department, looks like this.
Looking Up insignificant beside the hill, i begin to understand my importance in the scheme of things. if i were to think about my time and the scale of time these hills represent, i'd have to be impressed by my time as much as by my stature. how important i am not! i think and words come out, not always exactly appropriate; it can be a struggle. layers of sand, turned to stone, containing all the stories of so many ages. i seee it all, amazing, i am amazed. humbling, but i am not humiliated. loving the chaotic beauty of this wild place!
Vivid Sky
why do i think it's
the edge of night?
just before
the darkness
smothers colour
then darkness
comes,
and
sticky eyelids
stick shut
until morning.
why do i think it's
the edge of night?
why not:
the edge of day?
or something
else
unusual?
maybe we
should consider
mid-day
and midnight.
but nothing
seems unusual
about either.
maybe we can
forget middles
and edges
and make it
all about the sky.
seahorses
in the clouds!
Murray Robertson (photography & poems) 