Thoughts on the Rio Grande in Photographs and Haiku
This series explores the great river and its surroundings as it passes through the ever-expanding city of Albuquerque. This is a place where the needs of its people compete with the needs of the plants and animals that rely on its waters for life itself. The complex interplay between the city and the river has been well documented elsewhere, but this is an attempt to simplify and offer instead a haiku.
The series was the feature of a solo exhibition at the Open Space Visitor Center in January 2022.
the Rio Grande
developed beyond pristine
pristine beyond use
single syllables
started out simply and then
became the first words
all trees are dead wood
when seen from the perspective
of looming fungi
dashed against the rocks
the desert plays all options
at its discretion
once you realize
time is a double standard
then the fix is in
why fight on horseback
if you are riding a horse
then just ride away
the relationship
of near and far can only
define each other
run through the options
and ignore the role of luck
then call that your choice
immediacy
here on the Rio Grande
is a non-starter
hang on wait hold up
isn’t that just the shadow
of my current self
in the wintertime
the dry ground holds the footprints
just that much better
out west looking south
is just a cut up poem
of north looking up
shadows hold the snow
in forgotten crevasses
here on the west side
the Rio Grande
bends easy now that it’s tame
but once maybe twice
there is nothing green
well possibly that’s not true
but can you prove it