a small needful fact

a small needful fact

is that eric garner worked
for some time for the parks and rec.
horticultural department, which means,
perhaps, that with his very large hands,
perhaps, in all likelihood,
he put gently into the earth
some plants which, most likely,
some of them, in all likelihood,
continue to grow, continue
to do what such plants do, like house
and feed small and necessary creatures,
like being pleasant to touch and smell,
like converting sunlight
into food, like making it easier
for us to breathe.

ross gay

it's been a hard week. for me personally, yes, I have nearly been broken by a few personal things. but for this country, it's been a hard week. it's been a hard month, a hard year, a hard couple of years, a hard decade, a hard century. we seem brutally, inexorably bent on moving backwards. federal criminal charges were not pressed

I first shared this poem back in 2016

sometimes

I hate writing.

I love having written.

dorothy parker

(thank you, tracy)

yet absolutely, exactly, there

"it's a pleasure for me. the process of photographing. being physically in the world, eyes open, attentive, sensing, and at some point, connecting. to be in the world and of the world. to be, at the same time, out of your head, yet absolutely, exactly, there. it's thrilling when your eyes get ahead of your brain."

-henry wessel

sometimes you need to hear it

(scrawled on the beams of the brooklyn bridge, found while walking across it on the 29th of july, 2016)

this feels particularly relevant right now

"if you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don't hesitate. give into it. there are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. we are not wise, and not very often kind. and much can never be redeemed. still, life has some possibility left. perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. it could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. anyway, that's often the case. anyway, whatever it is don't be afraid of its plenty. joy is not made to be a crumb."

-mary oliver

if you are struggling

"if novelists know anything it's that individual citizens are internally plural: they have within them the full range of behavioral possibilities. they are like complex musical scores from which certain melodies can be teased out and others ignored or suppressed, depending, at least in part, on who is doing the conducting. at this moment, all over the world-- and most recently in america-- the conductors standing in front of this human orchestra have only the meanest and most banal melodies in mind. here in germany you will remember these martial songs; they are not a very distant memory. but there is no place on earth where they have not been played at one time or another. those of us who remember, too, a finer music must try now to play it, and encourage others, if we can, to sing along."

-zadie smith, from 'on optimism and despair', a beautiful, brilliant piece I implore you to read.

here's to the why

"it's not when you press the shutter but why you press the shutter."

-mary ellen mark

rhymes with fight

they're still there, these words. scribbled in chalk in the middle of a january night on the concrete support beams of a bleak suburban underpass. ten months later, who knew they'd still be there? that they wouldn't have been scrubbed off or painted over? or that sidewalk chalk could even last this long?

initially, I left them there because I thought, well, you never know. you never know who might need to read them. as it turns out, it was me. I needed them. I needed them yesterday and I needed them today and I will need them for the next four years and I will probably need them everyday until the end of times, I think.

there's a lot of hate in this country right now, we are swimming in darkness here. not that it's anything new-- this hate is decades, centuries old. but we reached sickening new heights with it tuesday night when half of america chose to elect who they did. which means we've got a world of work to do, folks. and it's gonna take a crap load of light.

a little more sidewalk chalk couldn't hurt either.

I want to share this with you

because it does something to me. because I keep coming back to it, again and again. because do people share poems anymore? because it's important. 

a small needful fact

is that eric garner worked

for some time for parks and rec.

horticultural department, which means,

perhaps, that with his very large hands,

perhaps, in all likelihood,

he put gently into the earth

some plants which, most likely,

some of them, in all likelihood,

continue to grow, continue

to do what such plants do, like house

and feed small and necessary creatures,

like being pleasant to touch and smell,

like converting sunlight

into food, like making it easier

for us to breathe.

ross gay

God bless you, ross gay.

be soft

be soft. do not let the world make you hard. do not let pain make you hate. do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.

-kurt vonnegut

dots

"a photograph is a universe of dots. the grain, the halide, the little silver things clumped in the emulsion. once you get inside a dot, you gain access to hidden information, you slide into the smallest event. this is what technology does. it peels back the shadows and redeems the dazed and rumbling past. it makes reality come true."

-don delillo

the best kind of bomb, really

super incredibly inordinately ridiculously excited and honored to be partnering with my brilliant friend and writer brene brown--

her words + my polaroids = COURAGEbombs delivered to your inbox every monday morning yo! each and every one, folks. I'm kind of excited about this.

read more here! sign up here!

all the exclamation points! all of them!

for the seeing

"I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them."

-diane arbus

today, tomorrow, always

'in the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.'

-martin luther king, jr

(mural by borondo for living walls, downtown at the corner of auburn avenue and jesse hill drive, just a few blocks from where dr. king grew up)

truth

the thing that's important to know is that you never know. you're always sort of feeling your way.

-diane arbus

street theatre

"at a time when staged narratives and rendered images are popular, I am excited by the fact that life itself offers situations far more strange and beautiful than anything I could set up. "

-melanie einzig

(a few parisian street shots that mean a little something to me)

this

my favorite thing is to go where I have never been.

-diane arbus

you totally should

again with the vinyl stickers. always a good time, always.

you totally will

written by a seven year-old ava five years ago as part of this secret mission, saved and promptly taped to the bathroom mirror. five years of looking at it while I wash my face and apply various fancy-like moisturizers. while I brush my teeth and pretend to floss. while I inspect my face for any and/or all flaws, notice new lines and imperfections. five years and still, it lifts my spirits. it helps me remember.

and on a somewhat related note: this made me happy.

exactly

"I start in the middle of a sentence and move both directions at once." -john coltrane