Monday, December 31, 2012

Not Quite Full Moon....



Click to embiggen:


Photo/Poem ©2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo taken by R. Baker in Shepherd, Texas, December 24, 2012.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Another New Year Among Years.....






Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker
Photos © 2012 R. Burnett Baker

Magpie Tales 149: No Ifs. Ands. Butts.






Text © 2012 R. Burnett Baker
Photo:  Image by R.A.D. Stainforth, Shared by Tess Kincaid.

Note:  Visit R.A.D. Stainforth's website by clicking his name above.  Also hear him read many of Tess Kincaid's poems by clicking her name above.  




Friday, December 28, 2012

After The Storm



                                       Click to embiggen: 




















Photo/Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Truth Serum II




Click to embiggen:





Photo/Text © 2012 R. Burnett Baker

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Truth Serum I: A New Series....




                                      Click to embiggen:
















Photo/Text © 2012 R. Burnett Baker

Friday, December 21, 2012

Post No Bills II: The Ad Men



Click to embiggen: 




Photo/Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo taken by R. Baker,  New York City, Sept 2012. 

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Full Moon



                                   Click to embiggen: 


















Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo © 2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo/Text © 2012 R. Burnett Baker 

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Another Perspective



                                  Click to embiggen:



















Photo/Text © 2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo taken by R. Baker in downtown Houston, Texas, October 2012. 

Monday, December 17, 2012

Vines That Bind


Click to embiggen: 




Photo/Text © 2012 Rick Burnett Baker

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Magpie Tales 148: Lovers and Soldiers
























legions 


hadn't anticipated this 
outcome, rolling stones
notwithstanding, but 
there are reflective 
moments, realizations 
of myriad paths. 

forward, backward - 
hedgehogs and shrews 
know their place in the 
order of universes: 

"let them be," you caution, 
"let them have their path, 
eyes drawn of fire, 
legs in goose-step purpose." 

"cower beside the passive 
moss-skin of naked trees," 
you tease, "winter will 
hide you surely as ice melts 
below the horizon." 


Poem ©2012 R. Burnett Baker
Photo by Andy Magee shared by Tess Kincaid.

Friday, December 14, 2012

City Scenes XXXVII: Knowledge Is(n't) Power



Click to embiggen: 



Photo/Text © 2012 R. Burnett Baker
Photo taken by R. Baker, Park Avenue, Rochester, NY.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Hard On Yourself?




Click to embiggen: 






Photo/Text © 2012 R. Burnett Baker

Sunday, December 9, 2012

From Discussion To Comment....



The first of these two epigrams is on the header of my "ranting" blog BakersTake, listed on my blog list.  

During a discussion this morning with a FaceBook friend,  I pointed out that header.  Then commenting on something she and I were talking about,  the second one was actually part of my reply to her.  I'll probably include these two in a themed exhibit I've been invited to do at the Eddy Tang Arts gallery in Seattle early in 2013.   

Click to embiggen: 






©2012 R. Burnett Baker 


Magpie Tales 147: Us, On The Horizon







horizon 


with every 
vista of victory,
tragedy, glory, 
beauty, love, 
hate, peace, 
war 

comes a 
horizon, a 
boundary beyond
the one before, 
now, 
ahead of; 

defining what is, 
from what was 
and is to 
be; 

where we are 
from where 
we were and 
are not; 

reality from fantasy. 

there are 
horizons in 
these sentences 
punctuated by 
every movement 
and fold of our 
resolve to 
action or 
inaction, 

from compassion 
to indifference: 

this, our 
common 
bond. 



Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo shared by Tess Kincaid 
Photo source:  The Meta Picture 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Perspective




                                    Click to embiggen:





















Photo/Text © 2012 R. Burnett Baker

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Too Soon. Always.



                                     Click to embiggen: 




















Text/photo ©2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo taken by R. Baker at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Rochester, NY. 

Monday, December 3, 2012

Upon These Walls.....



                Click to embiggen:




Poem ©2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo ©2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo taken 12-3-12 by R. Baker on South Ave., Rochester, NY. Mural by artist Eder Muniz, Brazil.  

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Magpie Tales 146: Time Passages



Click to embiggen:
Object to be Destroyed by Man Ray




Photo shared by Tess Kincaid 
Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

City Scenes XXXVI: Perspective



Click to embiggen:

















Text ©2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo ©2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo taken by R. Baker, 2012, Toronto, Ontario. 

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Art and Survival



























Painting by Eddie Tang, Seattle, Washington.
Image © 2012 Eddie Tang
Text © 2012 Rick Burnett Baker

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Magpie Tales 145: Senior Discount



Image shared by Tess Kincaid




premonition 


I will be the 
quirky old man
disheveled 
unkempt 
life-beaten
down; 

too tired 
to comb 
my hair 
or bathe
my mind 
in morning
ritual; 

a bum 
eccentric 
the sum of
friendlessness
parentlessness 
and responsible 
for my own 
disposal: 

let the walls 
crumble
rain fall 
wind blow 
dust gather 

and gather 
the elements 
before one 
final breath 
of senescent 
drama. 



©2012 R. Burnett Baker 


Thursday, November 22, 2012

City Scenes XXXV: Mixed Message




Click to embiggen:




©2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo ©2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo of overpass graffiti taken by R. Baker on West Henrietta Road, Rochester, NY. 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Basic Necessities










Click to embiggen:






















©2012 R. Burnett Baker

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Old and New: Another Remodeled Piece


Click to embiggen: 

©2012 R. Burnett Baker 

Magpie Tales 144: Lights of Life





gather 


moon gathers clouds

sun swallows fog 

night and day dance
playfully ignorant of 
our dream and vision. 





Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker
Image:   Squall, 1986, by Andrew Wyeth  Shared by Tess Kincaid





Sunday, November 11, 2012

Eyes Of The Beholder




                               Click to embiggen: 




















©2012 R. Burnett Baker

Magpie Tales 143: The Thought Of You?




this burning 


imagining you is the myriad landscape
of lust beside or inside your rage 

inside your forest-fired
grip of skin and words

your kiss the softened calm 
to whet what isn't consumed

by my suffocated grasp of 
us. 



















Verdun, 1917 by Felix Vallotton shared by Tess Kincaid.

Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Bird's Eye View




landscape 



life is the patchwork quilt of soil and tree, 

squared and plaited, broken only by 

meanderings of river or stream.  cities  of 

steel or mud, brick or wood pepper landscapes

of movement and place.  the horizon is forever 

ahead and elusive till broken by vessels of man, 

or wings of fowl:  we all fly, swallow sky, 

entwined with one revealing moment of eternity.  




Poem ©2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photos©2011 R. Burnett Baker 
Photos taken by R. Baker on a flight from Cleveland, Ohio to Houston, Texas October, 2011. 

Friday, November 9, 2012

Comment To A Friend, But Never Sent...





                                  Click to embiggen: 
















©2012 R. Burnett Baker
Photo taken by R. Baker on a flight to Houston, 2012.

What's Old Is New: "hearts burned" Redux




                                  Click to embiggen: 
















©2009, 2012 R. Burnett Baker



Wednesday, November 7, 2012

In our Image



                                   Click to embiggen:

















©2005, 2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo taken by R. Baker September, 2005, Taiwan.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Votes For (Un)Reason




(un)reason



these are the days for reason
when no reason is heard; the
time for solitude when no calm
can be found.  we are the voices
shouting when all are shouting,
when every soul hungers for
the silence of peace.  this is the
moment, and we are the seconds,
minutes, and hours of each
past and present life - our ecumenical
futures in disjointed discourse.

______________________________


validation is what we seek through
every effort, each stance taken for
or against thereof; calling upon lords
and angels in the minions' tongues,
yet amazed at the disunity of
comprehension (my way is "the"way)
and so it goes:  death and destruction
propels goodness, a goddess lacking
resolve to prevail, each age golden or
the last:  the sage speaks softly - remains
hidden in meditation's forest.

________________________________


I ascend a moment of sanity to question
what methods of reason protect us from us:
what is the moral mechanism preventing
our descent into anarchy, stopping all
thoughts of psychopathy, propelling us to
walk past one another without incident?
upon the platform of stasis our comforts
grant us dominion over our more evil selves.
we vote with faith that something beyond
comprehension will prevail, and we in its
benevolence, will as well.



©2012 R. Burnett Baker 

Communion


Click to embiggen: 




















Photo ©Lisa Kristine
Poem ©2012 R. Burnett Baker

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Magpie Tales 142: Face Of Stone




















face of stone 



none may claim the stone

of crevassed history; of 

fire and ice, sun and moonscape.

stone holds all memory, 

conjures up igneous lust 

for mounds of androgyny 

on an untouched virgin grail. 




Poem ©2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo:  Charis, Lake Ediza, California, 1937 by Edward Weston   Shared by Tess Kincaid 


Saturday, November 3, 2012

Friday, November 2, 2012

Looking Inward





















©2012 R. Burnett Baker

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

City Scenes XXXIV: Towing The Line



Click to embiggen:
Photo ©2012 R. Burnett Baker


Fair warning 
couldn't be 
clearer! 



Photo taken by R. Baker, 10-30-12 at 222 Andrews Street, Rochester, NY. 


Monday, October 29, 2012

Magpie Tales 141: Storm Story

















(love) story 



once there was a

man I knew who 

stood in a blinding

rain storm, walking

the shores of flowing

streets, and seaside 

surf.  without caring he 

stopped to gather 

every tide from the 

sky, and begged to 

be struck by lightening. 




Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo shared by Tess Kincaid.


Sunday, October 28, 2012

Never-ending









© 2012 R. Burnett Baker

Thursday, October 25, 2012

City Scenes XXXIII: Signs Everywhere






empty nest 


there 
you are 
side-sleeping 
eyes closed,

quilted flesh
waiting: 
waiting 

for me 
to sleep. 




Poem ©2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo ©2012 R. Burnett Baker

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Summer/Autumn Lament




Click to embiggen:





Poem ©2008, 2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo/image © 2012 R. Burnett Baker 

A Rick Doodle









©2012 R. Burnett Baker

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Magpie Tales 140: 1776



new world order 



the shallows of vastness are few: 

in oceans deep, rivers raging, 

under forests serene.  

our search for footing is survival 

sounding an alarm, providence 

of a watchful eye,  the headlong 

drive to trumpet glory 

on a glassy water surface, 

beside a silent brook, or within

the saddest shower of autumn's 

falling leaves. 



Shared by Tess Kincaid



Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker 




Thursday, October 18, 2012

Blues For You Too



Photo ©2012 R. Burnett Baker



this poetry of blues


these blues faded into night long ago 

along your journey to the world;  these 

eyes open red singing each refrain, 

every moribund note, from horn to voice. 

"no!" Big Mama, "no!"  Billie,  "no!" Francine:

"no no no!"  there still are ears 

aching to hear Sweet Emma sing 

"I'm Alone Because I Love You.”  



Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker

What Surrounds Us



Click to embiggen:


© 2012 R. Burnett Baker 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Magpie Tales 139: Home Is Where The.....




this coming/going home 



we waited for these moments, 

we whispered to the hours, 

under leaves as blankets, 

warmth drawing us inward, 

nearer to our sheltered hearts: 

we willow in reverence, 

recompense for days lost to effort, 

this season of our shadowed silence. 


Midnight Snack, 1984, by Curtis Wilson Cost




Painting shared by Tess Kincaid 
Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker