Day 18 of NaPoWriMo 2024

The drive down Newfoundland's west coast from L'Anse Aux Meadows, the site of North America's only confirmed Viking settlement, reminds me a little of California's glorious Mendocino highway. It was very windy that day.

Better formatting in the post, along with an audio reading of the poem.

* Lessons from the Wind *

Wind bends the grasses
Agitates the sea
Riffling waves roll
From water onto land

While I remain unperturbed
Steadfast
Face into the wind
As all around me
Is buffeted

And this
This is how I want to be
In the storm that is life
Where I am disturbed
By all that moves around me
Perturbed by the rushing flow

I take note
Learn the lessons nature offers
Resolve to become

Resolute as the rocky shore
Firm against the crashing waves
Supple as the grasses
Which bend then return to form
Deep as the ocean
Calm beneath its roiling surface

The wind
Whispers in my ear

Learn this
And you will become peace

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About the photograph:

Lessons from the Wind
Highway 430, The Viking Trail
River of Ponds
Newfoundland, Canada
Taken during travels, 2023

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A reading from the blog post:
Lessons from the Wind: https://pixtowords.com/2024/04/18/lessons-from-the-wind/
From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

The Fall

I fall
A cascade
Out of the mist
Down the rocky narrows

Seeking the still
Cool waters
Their calm

But there is no pool
Only the decline

Until I am reduced


To a trickle



Then




nothing

A macaque shares the rooftop
Lingers on the rail
As the rising sun stokes
The smoke laden atmosphere
To molten amber

It's tempting to believe
The monkey is as enthralled as I
With the iconic Red Fort silhouette
But I rather suspect the bugger's
Feigning disinterest in my breakfast

They're clever that way
To stray any further from the table
Set lavishly with silver and crystal on white tablecloth
Would invite a blitzkrieg
And the confiscation of my croissant

It's what I would do were our roles reversed

Fortunately, this angle is perfect
And near enough the table for deterrence
As the shutter clicks
I thank my little gray enemy
For the perfect pose

The croissant is delicious
Slathered with raspberry jam
I chase the last of it down with espresso
While the disappointed macaque lumbers off
In search of its own breakfast

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About the photograph:

Rhesus Macaque with Red Fort
Rooftop of Tara Palace Hotel
Chandni Chowk (Old Delhi)
New Delhi, India

Taken during travels, 2017

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A reading from the blog post:
Monkey Business ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #360: https://pixtowords.com/2024/03/11/monkey-business-pic-and-a-word-challenge-360/
From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

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The Pic and a Word Challenge is a weekly creativity prompt offered Mondays.

With each challenge I provide a photograph of mine along with a single word. The challenge? Use the pic and/or word as inspiration to create something -- a photograph, a painting, podcast, video, prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, longread or just a few words. You are welcome to use these two elements (photograph and word) literally, thematically or metaphorically. If you create both images and words, all the better.

Challenge rules are provided in the blog post link above.

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Sol yet plays coy with leaden horizon
But there is enough magic
In dawn's wan light
To illumine the contrast
Of ancient glory
Astride modern poverty
While camera and I
Find beauty in both

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About the photograph:

Contrast in Wan Light
Chandni Chowk (Old Delhi) and Red Fort
New Delhi, India

Taken during travels, January 2017

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A reading from the blog post:
Contrast in Wan Light: https://pixtowords.com/2024/03/10/contrast-in-wan-light/
From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

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You with those sad eyes
In the sallow light
Backdropped by electric blue

And me with the glass eye
Recorder of moments
Context only by supposition

I could not ask you then
What countenanced such sorrow
Or was it just an unguarded moment

Emotion apparent in an unintended gesture

I am left only with guesses
While you cannot even know
Someone reflects on this moment

From half a world away

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About the photograph:

You With Those Sad Eyes
Chandni Chowk market (Old Delhi)
New Delhi, India

Taken during travels, January 2017

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A reading from the blog post:
Half a World Away: https://pixtowords.com/2024/03/09/half-a-world-away/
From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

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This parade of life
This hubbub of trade
Of needs
Of desires
This chaos of order
And community

And here am I
Amid the throng
In the moments between
Want and have
In the choices between
Necessity and pleasure

This is existential quandary
Alone in my thoughts
In a sea of solitary moments
Each a universe
Borne from a solitary mind
Known only to itself

These in parallel all
With the essentials
Of desire
And necessity
A flurry of universes
Sharing a single dimension

While in my universe
The bodies of a thousand strangers
Dance in cadence
With the flow of trade
A performance at once
Exquisitely mundane and beautiful

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About the photograph:

The Parade of Life
Chandni Chowk market (Old Delhi)
New Delhi, India

Taken during travels, January 2017

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A reading from the blog post:
Existential Parade: ⁠https://pixtowords.com/2024/03/08/existential-parade/
From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

In motion
I am still
In stillness
I am empty
In emptiness
I find no peace

Hollow
Haunted
Vacant

Amidst this familiar pandemonium
I alone am solid
Yet invisible

Carrying as passenger
A pain which pays no fare
Answers no questions
Offers no solutions

The me of this moment
None will remember
Not even I

But here
The pain shuffles off
Into the crowd
And I will not remember it either

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About the photograph:

Bicycle Rickshaw Driver
Chandni Chowk market (Old Delhi)
New Delhi, India

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A reading from the blog post:
Moments I'll not Remember: https://pixtowords.com/2024/03/05/moments-ill-not-remember/
From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

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Suffocating smoke
Smothers glimmer and glee
Even the sun subdued
To wan gloom
Long before it sets

Still

I know colour lingers beneath
Recall its effervescence
Manifest the latent joy
Until that rises above the horizon
Of my heart

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About the photograph:

Taken during travels, 2017

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A reading from the blog post:
Manifest Colour: https://pixtowords.com/2024/03/01/manifest-colour/
From my blog Pix to Words: https://pixtowords.com/

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In 2017 I spent several weeks in northern India, visiting New Delhi, Agra (the Taj Mahal and Red Fort are there), and Varanasi (Hinduism's holiest city). The atmosphere all across the north was thick with seasonal agricultural smoke as the freshly harvested fields were set on fire in preparation for planting the next crop. By the third week, my cough had become chronic. A deep breath would start a coughing fit.

Delhi's air quality regularly clocks in as the most unhealthy on the entire planet. But Agra and Varanasi seemed not much better. I left Varanasi earlier than I would have liked. It's such a spectacularly unusual and deeply affecting place. But the air was just getting worse, becoming so bad the morning of my departure the flight was delayed for a few hours due to lack of visibility.

Rishikesh, at the base of Himalayan foothills, was a considerable improvement. But even there the smoke would, from time-to-time, creep into the valley, as it did the evening I took this photograph.