SEEING THE LIGHT

Seeing The Light
Age 63-65, Williston, North Carolina, 2008-2010

-- This is one poem, from my autobiographical series of poems, that I posted here at WriteSpike. Go to my Stories section for others. They are in chronological order. --

A photograph is made by recording an object in space (via the lens) over time (via the shutter speed)...a recording of space/time.
~ Rick Doble, "Experimental Digital Photography" ~
 

At the age of seven
I wrote a book
about going to the moon

I ruled the pages,
wrote the text
drew a picture or two
and bound it
between two pieces of cardboard
and then with my mother's help
stitched along the fold

I still have this in my library

about sixty years later
following a hunch
I was on the phone
to the photo editor of Lark Books
hoping she might be interested
in some of my skills
having already written two books
on digital photography

"Well, what book would you like to write?"
she asked
it was the question I had never dared hope for
the culmination of all my efforts -
a book on the new capabilities
of digital photography
merged with an artistic vision

not only that
I could use my writing skills
my teaching skills
my how-to skills
my understanding of the tradition of western art
all rolled together
into one book
that would lay out
a new world of imagery

but I also knew that the volume I envisioned
would probably not be the one published
- that rarely happens -
yet anything close would be a gift

a year and a half later
I held it in my hands
- you'd have to be a book lover
to understand -
like holding a new baby
the book was finished
and was even better than I had imagined

there are times when the threads
of one's life long efforts
do come together
to weave a fabric
you had in mind