Photographer and Poet

I have a friend whom I haven't seen for ~60 years. She was the sister of my best boyhood friend, but she was also my friend.

I moved to Toronto from Montreal when I was just 15, and we all lost touch after a few years. Somehow, her brother, Nelson, and I resumed contact about 25 years ago, and that eventually led to renewing acquaintances with Doris. 

Despite not seeing each other for 60 years, we exchange birthday greetings and best wishes at Christmas.

Like me, Doris is a photographer. (I can remember asking her questions about photography when I was less experienced.) Unlike me, her primary photographic interest is wildlife, particularly our avian friends. 

Like me, Doris blogs.  She titles her blog Thoughts and Things. Unlike me, she does not blog incessantly but periodically and, more often than not, when she has had an encounter with her feathered friends.

Not only does Doris photograph and blog, but she also is a poet.

A few years ago, she sent me a copy of her self-published book of poetry, Discoveries in the Dark, a compilation of poems dating back from close to when I knew her in the 1960s all of the way to 2020. Indeed, as I open to page 36, I see Thorns (2017) and Surrender (1980) across from each other. 

Many of the poems are accompanied by photos. The Sacred being one, as she writes about her encounter with a deer in 1996. An excerpt:

The sacred is clothed in fur and feathers and scales and skin.
It flashes out from shining eyes in darkened woods
And speaks in bird songs and cicada serenades

It touches a place in me where wildness dwells –
A long forgotten, hidden place that shivers in sudden resonance

 

Doris recently wondered if I would like a copy of her new volume: Longing for the Light. Well yes, of course I would. I expected to purchase the book but was surprised to find a printed copy in my mailbox last week.

Longing for the Light covers her most recent works, from 2020 onward. She follows the same format of sometimes linking a poem with photos as with her Desert Dreams poem. The poem was juxtaposed with a photo of desert-like, red rock outcrop. It made me think of both Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly, which we visited in Arizona.

In the canyon pass, red rock walls tower
on either side of me.
I walk as a child between
two protective branches with strong shoulders

Ravens sail past the cliff sides –
wings air-brushing the rock facades.

 

This is a link to her blog, Thoughts and Things, while this link takes you directly to her specific post about her new collection: Longing for the Light.

You will see the Kindle versions of both books (first and third images) on these pages: Amazon Canada, Amazon USA.