Cherry Blossoms In December

                                       Click on image to enlarge:

"Cherry Baby, It's cold outside. 

Save your blooms for spring.

The Autumn Flowering Higan Tree 

blossoms will make December sing." 

-Rick Burnett Baker  

Mild autumn and winter temperatures in Western New York have everyone a titter.  Even the cherry trees. 

Photo/Text © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker
All Rights Reserved

Last Wash: Deep Thoughts Tumbled Dry

Click image to enlarge:

"Quarters. Soap. Cycle. Rinse. 

Tumble dry.  Life is ritual. 

Closing time is posted, but 

hand written.  Pay it no mind."

-Rick Burnett Baker 

Photo/Text © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved 

Photo taken on Lake Ave., Rochester NY 

Waiting

                              Click on image to enlarge: 

"I dare not disturb this 

lonely bench in its solitude. 

An autumn leaf 

came to rest on one corner, 

waiting." 

-Rick Burnett Baker

Photo/Poem © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Alive

Click on image to enlarge:

alive

look to the 

soul of a forest, 

skull-bone trees -

I swear they 

see me watching, 

my eye to the sky

as the great dying 

falls crimson red 

around my feet. 

Photo/Poem © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Lifespans

Click on image to enlarge:

collect 

cycle and re-cycle; 

reflect and collect. 

each day is a day

seasons gather, 

and we gather 

different, the same.

Photo/Poem © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved 

Beyond Limits

"We humans create boundaries 

to set limits.  

Nature lives beyond 

all that fakery."  

-Rick Burnett Baker

Photo/Text © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker
All Rights Reserved

Believe In Power

"If you believe in the 

power of humans, 

a quiet walk through the woods on 

a cold autumn day will show you 
what power really is."  

-Rick Burnett Baker

Photo/Text © 2013, 2015  Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Salted Top

inner voice

salted top and old growth 

describes me, most days.

color at my feet tells of 

seasons. forest canopy 

calms the rising morn, but

listen:  there is silence 

under heaven, and it is 

telling myriad stories of

how we should have lived.

Photo/Poem © 2105 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Letchworth Blue

Most times of the year, in Letchworth State Park in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate NY, you can capture the peaceful blue haze across the canyon, through the cabin windows and forests, and beyond the waterfalls.

This past week I've made a couple of visits to the park which is only about a 45 minute drive south of Rochester.  The autumn leaves are mostly all gone.  Winter colors will soon be more monotone as the fog, ice, and snow claim their season.

This is the time of year when we have to search for the colors of nature more diligently.  Old Man Winter wears his cloaks of black, gray, and white.  Here are a few photos that capture those "Different Hues of Letchworth Blue"that seem to be all around us just for the seeking.

Click on photos to enlarge: 

 





Photos © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker
"Hues of Letchworth Blue"©2015 Rick Burnett Baker
All Rights Reserved

"Hues of Letchworth Blue" is an ongoing photographic series by R. Baker

Autumn's Cover

cycles 

we know autumn.

escaping is it's game: 

color is just a cover. 

stand against the moment,

for this forest portends

timeless reigns. what's 

lost in darkness is borne 

again on the morrow. 

Photo/Poem © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved 

Photo taken at Letchworth State Park, NY

Just Passing

passage

beside this river noise,

under November mist,

beneath faded hues,

seasons pass paths.

we steady our eyes -

this downhill climb.

Photo/Poem © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Dream Beyond

through seasons

fair weather child, 

          dream beyond windows. 

November steals the day.  

          tomorrow is framed 

and waiting beyond the 

          first and last snows,  

our future foretold. 

Photo/Poem © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Alternatives

"I was frightened of the forest 

until I saw the void." 

-Rick Burnett Baker

Photo/Text © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Spring Really Hung Me Up The Most...

Mid-April and I visited Wolf Creek in Letchworth State Park this past spring.  It was underwhelming. My goal to catch the bridge in complete seasonal splendor will have to wait until 2016. Perhaps I was too early, or perhaps there isn't much color to be had, but Spring really does hang you up the most! 

Photos © Rick Burnett Baker
All Rights Reserved

On a Bridge and A Prayer

bridge's prayer


I carried you, you paused. I 
held you, you moved unfazed.

mid-autumn, let me be this one 
season's end of steel and bone. 







Photo/Poem © 2014, 2015 Rick Burnett Baker
Photo take at Wolf Creek, Letchworth State Park, NY

Fly Away

"Hours, the day, seasons, people,

the moment you take to see this, 

all fly away."  

-Rick Burnett Baker

Buck Pond, Greece, NY

Photo/Text © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

To the Light

"Light may not always appear 

at the end of the tunnel, but it

will always appear."

-Rick Burnett Baker 

Photo/Text © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Votive Dance

votive dance

our nature is to living 
as living is to hope: a 
supple river, still pond,
vast ocean, deep lake. 

stand at water's edge. 
a current whispers for
you to flow towards
this one votive dance.  




Photo/Poem © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 
All Rights Reserved

SociaLIESed Media: A Commentary

SociaLIESed Media

We've no time for truth.  

Emotion and agenda are 

the catalysts, the bottom 

line, the ultimate goal.  

Photo/Text © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

Photo of graffiti taken in abandoned Rochester, NY subway tunnel. 

Graffiti: Crux

October

October. 

And so it is...

© Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Stunning Sunset #2

For the forth day in a row, 

clouds are painted with 

brushstrokes of sunlight.

Stunning! 

                               Click on image to enlarge: 

Photo © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Stunning Sunsets

During the past several days, the sunsets here in Western New York have been stunningly colorful.  I did read that there was a volcano that erupted in Mexico on September 23rd, so perhaps some of that volcanic ash has contributed to the deep colors we're seeing this weekend.  

Here are a few of the various shots I've taken in the past three days around Rochester, NY. 

Click on images to enlarge:

Photos © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Enabled

enabler(s)

these are faces weathered
flawed anguished serene;

bright ideas between lines
of thought planted on eons;

we the spectators to life,
OBE-like as if in denial

of self, destroy as we create
barriers to our own salvation.

you are rainwater seeping
into your mind's evolution;

others are seasons unrelenting
in progressions of endeavor;

she is your mother weeping
at the gate of your release;

he is the father raging at
all he neglected to teach;

I am the impassioned one
selling my soul for reason.

Photo/Poem © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved 

(un)broken

(un)broken

into the sky, into fire 

yet never will I travel

willingly to extinction: 

light surrounds all we 

see.  even darkness 

is but a silent shadow.

Photo/Poem © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Incarnations: One View

(re)incarnations 

it's movement in the corner of my eye:

wind catching a tree in early morning 

darkness;  watching leaves rustle in 

a pre-storm gale outside the window 

in silence.  reflection is a reminder

that our origins, real and perceived, 

memorize all paths we consider with

trepidation.  past, present, and future

are siblings of incarnations we 

create with breadth, if not reason.

Photo/Poem © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Ruminate. Again.

ruminate

summer isn't 

finished.

abandoned, sultry 

sunlight

is a dream not 

discussed

except in coded

stanzas 

of disconnect. I 

feel 

ripples of water 

tease

desire. your 

fleeting  

of years and 

hearts 

inconvenience these

histories 

of high and low

tide.

   

Poem © Rick Burnett Baker 

Photo © Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

One In A Million

                                  Click on image to enlarge

"If you have to be one in a million, 

be the one who smiles." 

-Rick Burnett Baker 

Photo/Text © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker

All Rights Reserved 

Photo taken at the corner of Calkins Road and Clover Street, Monroe County NY. 

Grand Scheme

"The grand scheme of things..."

Photo/Text © Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Storm Chasing

                               Click on image to enlarge:

Sunset chasing the end of a storm

Photo © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved 

Sunset August 20, 2015 over Ontario Beach, Rochester, NY

(Re)Incarnations

(Re)Incarnations

It's movement in the corner of my eye,

wind catching a tree in early morning 

darkness;  watching leaves rustle in 

a pre-storm gale outside the window 

in silence.  Recollection is it's reminder

that our origins, real and perceived, 

garnish all paths we consider with

each footstep.  Past, present, and future

are simultaneous siblings of incarnations

we create with breadth and reason.

Photo/Poem © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Defiance

"Defiance" 

Tree in the Genesee River, just below High Falls, Rochester, NY 

Photo © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved 

Water and Fire

"The dance between water and fire 

is imagination."

-Rick Burnett Baker 

Photo/Text © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved

Summer Bed

Click on image to enlarge:

This image just says, "Relax."  

Photo © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

Dances In The Sky

Poetry, music, and art sometimes 

come together at sunset.  What 

rhyme, melody or palet do you 

see and hear when you stop to

listen? 

All of these photos were taken this afternoon, 

August 3, 2015 at Durand Eastman Park on 

Lake Ontario, Rochester, NY.  It was amazing

to watch colors change so dramatically in such

a short space of time.  

Photos © 2015 Rick Burnett Baker 

All Rights Reserved