A throwback…
I have fond memories of black and white photographs taken by my dad in his old box camera. The three pictures that I can quickly recollect are a representation of my world back in the era of black and white. Be it watching the swaying coconut trees and the shimmering water on moonlit nights, or the artistry of those antique time pieces collected by my grandfather and of course those lively evenings in my childhood years, where the old gramophone would play so invitingly that we would all be waltzing and jiving away to evergreen hits. Yes nostalgia filled me in those verses, but with happy memories.
Black and white photography
An art form for a connoisseur
Aesthetics of understanding
Of the clarity of line
That plays hide and seek
So much resemblance
To the wisdom of time.
In seeking is the blending
Of reflections dissolving
Ever so hard to pin down
Faded visions blurred memories
Reminding of colour through our senses
Perspectives differ in the past recalled
Comparisons translucent in the semi presence.
An important feature
Are the shades of grey
Areas masked and marked,
Blurring to focus
Uncaliberated and undeliberated
Between the lines
Adding enigma
Surreal feelings
A take back in time
Of notions in nostalgia.
Savvy
Savvy Raj 
December 4, 2024 at 5:43 pm
Ah Yes Dear Savvy The Nostalgia of Black And White Photos From As Long Ago
As the Early 1900’s When my Great Grandfather’s and Great Grandmother’s Were
Still Alive One Photo on the Maternal
Side A Great Grandmother Soon to Pass
Away From Breast Cancer Both Already
With Stoic Looks of a Life Well Fought
to Survive Determined to Make it Through
The Same in Ireland Showing my Great Grandfather
Same determined Look Immigrating From the Black Forest Of Germany
to Live in Ireland Meeting my Great Grandmother Rainsford Whose Family
in Ireland Supported
The Production of
Guinness Beer
While my Great Grandfather’s
Family in Germany Made Fine Watches
Soon to Sell Shoes in Ireland Mending them too
Ah Yes And then A Faded Black and White Photo
Of my Irish Decendents From Those Two With my
Grandfather the Last of Many Children Sadly Orphaned
By the Two Meeting in Ireland living in an Orphanage Early
in Life He Sort of Looked like that ‘Home Alone’ Kid in the Movies
When Young Yet the Older Children Adults in the Photo Stoic and Strong
While i Suppose
He Used His early
Loneliness in Pursuit
of Becoming a Catholic
Priest in Ireland Tenacious
Enough to Finish Many Higher
Level Degrees Eventually Counsel
to the Pope at the Vatican Eventually Immigrating
to Here as Of Course the Ancestors of my Maternal
Relatives Did too my Great Grandfather settling 150
Acres on the Beach at the Turn of the 1900’s as They
Allowed Folks to Homestead Land that Large on the Beach
Almost
For Free
Except Farming the Land
Of Course His Wife Dying of Breast
Cancer my Grandmother Quitting School
to Pick Cotton on Land Settled After that
Farther North in the County in a Place Called
Spring Hill Far Away From What They Say my Family
Helped Name Oriole Beach on the Emerald Gulf Coast
Long Before People Lived their with Electricity Ah Yes
my Grandmother Helped Raise Her Two Sister’s They With
College Educations and Good Jobs While She a Divorced Mother
of Three Waitressed for a Decade Working 12 Hours a Day Walking
to Work With No Car for 7 Days a Week Working Holidays too And While
i Compare All of what
my Ancestors Did to
All the Joy i Have in Life
Now For What They Struggled to
Do to Bring my FootPrints to Earth
Including my Grandfather Irish Catholic
Priest Leaving the Catholic Church So He
Could Marry a Young Cajun Woman From North Florida
i Understand All of what it Took to make this Gift of Life For
Real in the Nostalgia of Stoic Black And White For Just my Recent
Ancestors
From Three
Generations Now
While i Begin to Celebrate
21,000 Miles oF Public Dance
in 135 Months of Doing that
It’s Really Nothing Compared
to What my Maternal Grandmother
Did in Distance Waitressing All those
Hours Days and Years Just a Bit Over an
Average of 5 Miles a Day of Dance For me Yet Likely
Over 20 Miles A Day of Never Ending Grueling Work for Her
Including Being the First Woman in Town to Wear Slacks and
Sell Auto Parts at the Only Dealership in Town As Men Were Missing
in the Job
During
World War II
True She Went through
A Country-Wide Depression too
Her Brother Who Operated A First
Gas Station and Small Store on Navarre Beach
Stuffed Money into Light Fixtures in the Ceiling for
Fear that Banks Would Once Again Fail Someday in His Life
True It’s Important to Appreciate What We Have Enough in Gratitude
So We Don’t
Go Back to All
the Struggles We’ve
Had in Our Lifetimes
And the Ones Our Ancestors
Did for the Gift of Arriving Now
SMiLes Nostalgia of Black and White
Gratitude Indeed
Dear
Savvy…
Our Living Trees
Do Still BREaTHE NoW Fully Rooting
Even Dancing And Sing So Very Free
NeW
iN JoY
oF LoVE
iN Peace For Now..:)
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