Old Guitars

 

 

Old guitars lean on chairs.
Sound boxes curve
like bodies of women.
Blank music paper scatters
to catch notes which fall
from long fingers
with blue knuckles.

Tantric mandalas
of guitar chord spin
for a moment in the air.
Cigarette smoke settles in waves
around un-barbered heads--­
islands in a phantom sea.

Music played urgently
pushes back the void.
The world shaped by it
can be photographed
but not the sound itself.

Fisherman’s Wharf Sundown, San Francisco 1982

The camera was a Nikon FM with a Kiron 28-85 varifocal lens. The film was Plus-X, and I’m not sure of the developer, but it was probably Microdol. Click on photos for larger view.

 

 

 

 

 

The Guns of Fort Pulaski

Fort Pulaski National Monument is located between Savannah and Tybee Island, Georgia. It preserves Fort Pulaski, where in 1862 during the American Civil War the Union Army successfully tested a rifled cannon, the success of which rendered brick fortifications obsolete. The fort was also used as a prisoner-of-war camp. The National Monument includes most of Cockspur Island (containing the fort) and all of adjacent McQueens Island.

These are not happy places. This place saw destruction, suffering and defeat. Blood was spilled on these floorboards. It is all very distant to us now, 151 years ago. This was not a place you wanted to be with a war going on.

Click on photos for larger view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charleston in Black and White

It seemed only fitting. Click on photos for larger view:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Folly Beach

Folly Beach is a really fun place south of Charleston, SC. It lacks the stuffy pretentiousness of Charleston, a town fatally infected with it’s own poison. We went to Folly two nights in a row and has supper at the wonderful Beach City Grill. It’s a restaurant on the pier at Folly Beach. We ate outside to sound of waves coming in and solo guitar player. Here are some pictures. Click on photos for a larger view.