Candle smoke

This is the shot that was almost not.
The photographer wasn't ready.
The smoke swirled gracefully in this spot
For a hand that wasn't steady.

It floated above the altar space
In a heavenly morning light
When just before she lost the race
The photographer got it right.

This isn't the perfect picture here.
It wasn't the one she'd seen.
But she managed to make the smoke come clear
As it floats above the scene.

Sometimes a glimpse is all we're shown
And a moment is all we get
And we take the shot while the smoke is blown
And we aren't finished yet.

Sometimes our mind's eye lets us see
What our camera cannot borrow
But we take the shot, maybe two or three,
And we'll try again tomorrow.


Abstract Thursday :: Impressionist.
(Thanks to Ingeborg.)

Extra: Early morning in Jamison Square Park. The fountains were roaring and splashing in the sunlight, but nobody was there to play in them. It has been too cold! In a month they will be filled with toddlers, dogs, and happy people on a hot day. I have to admit, I kinda like the way they are now.

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ADDENDUM: ROBERT W. SERVICE

Reading over my poem, I can't stop hearing the rhythm of another poet, summoned from my youth, whose insistent drum beat went Boomlay boomlay boomlay boom (as another poet, Vachel Lindsay, put it). I'll quote just one stanza from 'The Shooting of Dan McGrew' by Robert W. Service. It's an amazing torrent of words, and I can't pretend to hold a candle to it. I just want to acknowledge the inspiration.

"There's men that somehow just grip your eyes, and hold them hard like a spell;
And such was he, and he looked to me like a man who had lived in hell;
With a face most hair, and the dreary stare of a dog whose day is done,
As he watered the green stuff in his glass, and the drops fell one by one.
Then I got to figgering who he was, and wondering what he'd do,
And I turned my head — and there watching him was the lady that's known as Lou."

How can you resist the temptation to read the rest of the story?
Robert W. Service, I tip my hat to you.