City Scenes XXXVI: Perspective

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

Art and Survival

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

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 

City Scenes XXXV: Mixed Message

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©2012 R. Burnett Baker 

Photo ©2012 R. Burnett Baker 

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

Basic Necessities

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©2012 R. Burnett Baker

Old and New: Another Remodeled Piece

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©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

Eyes Of The Beholder

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©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

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. 

Comment To A Friend, But Never Sent...

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

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

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©2009, 2012 R. Burnett Baker

In our Image

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

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

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Photo ©Lisa Kristine
Poem ©2012 R. Burnett Baker

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 

Hit The Road, Jack

©2012 R. Burnett Baker

Looking Inward

©2012 R. Burnett Baker