Weekly Photo Challenge: Wonder

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As is
so often the case,

I took
the photograph
first, then
looked.

Saw the water
messaged fresh across his
name,

and I wondered then

if you were there
in the shade of the oaks
watching me

in distaste.

42 thoughts on “Weekly Photo Challenge: Wonder”

  1. a photo/picture says so much, without any need words bb, stark names, carved into wood or metal tells not of the pain left behind… but the water streak speaks volumes..
    Lovely verses too my friend. So much tragedy in the loss of lives cut short.. xPenx

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  3. Pingback: Questions Unanswered « Spirit Lights The Way

    • Thanks, Charles. I do wonder how the families feel about the countless strangers passing through this space – I suspect some don’t mind but others do a great deal.

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  6. I take the photo first, think later. I feel our subconscious works faster than our working mind. And isn’t that what signs and symbols are for? To draw our unconscious mind away from its own preoccupations towards someone else’s story? Lovely post….

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    • Hi Sana – this is really just raising questions about what we are doing when we take a photograph in a public space.
      The gesture of the religious token placed there, a gesture of love and mourning, is what drew me to take the photo, but seeing the water marks (which wouldn’t have been there long) really put my heart in my throat and made me think about who might have put them there and what they might be feeling at that moment.

      Later, I saw a name elsewhere there which is identical in first and last to my brother’s and that made me think about how if it was truly his name I would feel if strangers were posing smilingly in front of it. I was there with friends and afterwards I realized that there was an implicit agreement about not taking photos of each other in this space, and I thought a lot about why that should be so. I am not saying it is necessarily right or wrong to do so, but just how I thought I might feel about these things it if I had lost someone I loved there.

      Thanks for your comment.

      Reply

  12. I would be happy for people to take photos of Stephen’s memorial tree. In fact I have seen someone do so when I walked away after leaving flowers at its base. I want people to see his name, to wonder who he was, to perhaps look him up on google, to know that he was deeply loved and always remembered.

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  18. Pretty strong image and message. The poem on its own, out of this immediate context, open a little wider to intepretation and makes a very nice metaphor about us taking pictures first and then examining what we took pictures of later.

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