Wednesday, November 28, 2012

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. 

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




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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. 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Basic Necessities










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©2012 R. Burnett Baker

Sunday, November 18, 2012

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





Sunday, November 11, 2012

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

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...





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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



Wednesday, November 7, 2012

In our Image



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©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


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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