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Photography: Washington Part 3-Seattle

I’ve always been someone who is in awe of the world, but being able to capture some of that feeling with my camera is incredibly satisfying.

This third installment of photos from my Washington trip are shots taken around the city of Seattle. I sure hope this isn’t like making someone sit through vacation slides! Let me know if you have a favorite and thanks for supporting me. It really means so much.

“Sometimes I come up here at night…just to look at the city. I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.” —Brian Selznick

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  • These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
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poetry: bee’s knees

sitting alone travel weary
stirring knitted words together
orange slice floats on top

golden bell chimes three times
crystalized ginger stains
my quiet mouth twitches

bottles watch me in a row
ghost fingerprints pressing hard
water splashes to the floor

bigfoot holds dinosaur bones
alligator swamp man swims
moscow mules brey softly

my ship docked, dried
curtain call, window pane
stained glass owls don’t hoot

baby eagle watches deer
do you see it too? second drink
she says I’m a good mother

silver strands braided back
shadows fall across wood floor
love bares its teeth at me

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Photography: Washington Part 2-Shelburne Hotel

On the second night of our trip, we traveled to the historic town of Seaview and stayed at the Shelburne Hotel. You may remember I wrote about our ghost experience in this same hotel last year, and so we were eager to return. Although I’m certain I felt someone gently pressing me down in the clawfoot bathtub, this time our experience was mostly restful.

For me, the beauty of staying at the longest continuously operating hotel in Washington State is the interesting light fixtures and the way the hotel makes you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. I hope you’ll consider staying here if you ever find yourself in the area. Let me know if you have a favorite photo or if something stands out for you. Thanks!

“All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.”
—Leo Tolstoy

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  • These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
  • For booking information, visit the Historic Shelburne Hotel
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Photography: Washington Part 1-Chinook and Astoria

Last week I took a much-anticipated trip to visit my mother, connect with a dear poetry friend, and show the city of Seattle to my daughter. It was a feast for the photographic eye. Please join me for a series of posts (6 total) exploring the Pacific Northwest and let me know if you have a favorite photo.

“Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke

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  • These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
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Photography: Worm Moon

As I carefully walk toward the rippling water my shoes sink in the soft mud. You tell me to listen to what the frogs are saying. I try, but I don’t know how to be still enough. A small patch of yellow flowers grows near the shore and I struggle to get closer to them. What are they saying? The Worm Moon bursts out from behind the clouds shining a spotlight across the water. Everything seems to be calling out. I swallow my words and listen harder.

“The gold tree is blue,
The singer has pulled his cloak over his head.
The moon is in the folds of the cloak.”
—Wallace Stevens

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For my third attempt at full moon photography, I visited Folsom Lake at sunset. It felt magical and different. My daughter drew a moth in the sand. Spring is here.

Let me know if you like these and if you have a favorite. These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.

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poetry: stripped

you are almost obscene
without petals
alien green bulbous body
too many waving yellow arms
yet you appear honest
dare I say brave

once, scared nobody could love me
I did this to a flower
it could have been a relative of yours
a great great great grandflower
I didn’t think about what it wanted
what my actions would change
only if I could be loved
if I could be chosen

I tore each delicate petal off
love me
love me not
until a pink pile lay at my feet
wasted beauty
for something like answers

seeing you now I wonder
what answers you hold
first full and now bare
and why naked truth
still scares me

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Photography: Spring

“If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke

I’ve been sick for two weeks with a terrible virus. It started with a fever and ended with a horrible nonstop cough. I stayed in bed, minus a trip to the doctor, but barely got any rest. It was one miserable day after the next. It made me appreciate my health and fully understand the word surrender.

To celebrate returning to the land of the living (maybe a bit dramatic), I dusted off my camera and visited the local plant nursery this morning. The bees, the colors, and the sunshine all did wonders for my mood. I hope you enjoy these photos and please let me know if you have a favorite.

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  • These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
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Photography: Snow Moon/Hunger Moon

You aren’t here with me in these blue woods. I’m alone. Hands hanging loosely at my sides, I track the full moon until it peeks through the dark silhouetted branches. The sky morphs from cold white to warm gold and back again. A breeze blows gently and my skirt dances around my knees. It feels like butterflies and Spring, but it’s still February. Still winter. Snow falls softly in the nearby mountains.

My mind forgets and remembers things as I walk, a circle of thought looping and playing. Soon a song cuts through and clears out everything else. “All this joy, all this sorrow.” Maybe I hummed it then, alone in the woods on the night of the Hunger Moon. The night I was missing you. Maybe you did too.

“We’re both looking at the same moon, in the same world. We’re connected to reality by the same line. All I have to do is quietly draw it towards me.”—Haruki Murakami 

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This was my second attempt at photographing the full moon this year and it was nearly as frustrating. There were a lot of clouds and I found myself more interested in the trees than the moon. I wonder if I’ll tire of this project or stretch my photography skills further. Time will tell.

Let me know if you like these and if you have a favorite. As is usual, these photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.

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poetry: floating together

find me where winter waters flow
honey thick. where ferns weave baskets
cradling colored stones. listen for songs
dripping down cave walls, tiny fairy feet
dancing delicately on crushed shells, soft
foamy voices calling your name. follow
them. do not despair as earthen gravity
releases you. let go. reach through murky
darkness until our fingertips merge. hold
tight as our toes taste stars. I’m beside
you watching our bubbly breath connect
inside and outside. beautifully untethered.

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poetry: petals

hold this, please
while I wander underwater
where softness grows
where muted heartbeats
dance

look closer, bend
see tiger stripes gleaming
where fire resides
where boldness bellows
sings

become mermaid, dive
unfold each lovely bloom
where water renews
where bells chime
live