Got into a staring contest with this little puffer fish while I was at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans. Obviously, he won.
Nature
Badwater Basin, Death Valley
I visited Death Valley in February of 2014 and was lucky enough to see rain and even a small amount of water accumulation on the ground. The result were flowers erupting in small patches all over the barren looking landscape. My father and I spent more than a day driving though, hiking over, taking photos of and staring in marvel at the engulfing desert all around us.
Ashes and diamonds
Salvaged from damnation
Ashes turned to diamonds
Your heart shone
A stone, stolen
From the depths of the earth
To the palm of my hand
A maddening brilliance
That lit kingdoms afire
And set hearts into frenzy
Small blue flower
Through the elements
Out of torments,
Storms form the north,
Rains from the south,
You seemed to grow
Declining to recognize
The lack of warmth
All along promising to yourself
That one day the sun would come
Time and inquiry
For in the wind lie answers,
Old as time itself,
Questions asked by weary travelers
Found only on the lips of lovers.
Lake Atitlan at Daybreak
The subdued blues of the rising sun over Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, highlight how serene the mountains surrounding the lake appear at the break of day. By early morning, the towns and villages surrounding this highland lake are buzzing with farmers, artisans, trade boats, and tourists.
Sailing from time
Over the bow
I stared deep into the blue
A reflection looked back
Dark, it watched me
We fell, we swam, and we drown
We became the sea
We became the sun
We were lost in time
Time forgot to hold us
We forgot to watch the time
Calsbar Quarry, Gulliver, Michigan
A colorful glimpse into a unique quarry in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This former limestone quarry was filled almost instantly when miners hit a natural spring. The white limestone gives the water an almost tropical color, while remaining crystal clear to see the sunken buildings, equipment, logs, and wildlife at the bottom (about 20 feet deep when this photo was taken). It used to be one of my favorite swimming places, but was drained in recent years to resume limestone mining.
A silent storm
The silence,
Golden like the dawn
It gave me space
New to me
After a turbulent year
It came to me
Like a tropical storm
Forceful, beautiful in its terror
Washing everything clear
Torn from the past
A flood came
From above
From below
All sides
Nothing could be denied
Nothing was the same
It came freely
It rolled over me
It took control
It electrified my senses
And I was alive once again
A Poetic Voyage 