TM Gallery

Looking at old photographs of people
Seeing the expressions on their faces
How each person looks at me looking at them
Looking as if they are alive today.

Seeing their clothes and hair styles
Setting them in another time and place
That does not exist except as a memory
My imagination goes back there.

No doubt my dress and the things about me
Will look strange to some person in the future
Though today it mostly conforms to the norm.
My imagination goes ahead there.

Here now where I am
The past and future speak to me
And I listen closely as if I could hear their stories
Told by the silent people of these photographs

2020

2012-01-05T16:33:00.000-05:00

We see what we imagine.
20/20 is a measure of good eyesight.
2020 is a year in the seeming far future.
Suppose I am alive and well in that year.

That’s possible.
Where will I be living?
What will I be doing with my days?
I imagine I am happy enjoying a good life.

Will you also be alive and well
And with me? I hope so.
You are happy to be with me now
As am I with you.

We discover new places and creatures.
We learn about new discoveries in science.
We volunteer to help others.
Doing this together will never get old.

Doing this alone would be a heartbreak.
That’s not what I imagine in my daydream.
But we who have known great losses know
To enjoy now for the time being today.

new year's day sights

2012-01-02T08:48:00.001-05:00

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Mill Creek Point and Mills Reservation

2011-12-31T17:09:00.002-05:00

Mill Creek Point images
Mill Creek Point map

Mills Reservation images
Mills Reservation map

Mill Creek Trail

2011-12-30T18:13:00.002-05:00

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google map

DeKorte Meadowlands

2011-12-29T15:50:00.000-05:00

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google map

Headwaters Passaic River

2011-12-27T16:00:00.000-05:00

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Bajan Family Xmas

2011-12-26T10:00:00.000-05:00

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kenmore elite user manual

greenbrook sanctuary solstice

2011-12-22T16:41:00.001-05:00

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google map

winter solstice

2011-12-18T09:33:00.001-05:00

Imagine a day that is six hours shorter
As high as the summer sun rises at nine in the morning
As high as the sun gets at the noon peak in December
No more the summer sunlight between 9 AM and 3 PM.

That is the winter solstice here
Forty-one degrees north of the equator
The mid day heat and light gone south.
Now the long months of winter night.

We set our candles out in the dark.
We cut the evergreen and bring it inside
The smell of balsam reminds us of spring
Seen through the orange dusk and frosted glass.

The noontime declination a mere twenty-four degrees
The night at fifteen hours almost twice as long as the day.
What we feel as the season slips into ice
The numbers measure objectively.

Sunrise 7:15 AM. Sunset 4:30 PM.
Let there be a few brief hours of bright sun
Slanting through the bare trees
Keeping memory and hope alive.

The birds come to our feeder hungrily.
The winter ducks arrive on the ponds and bay.
These are our companions for the season
Bundled warmly in their soft down.

hooded mergansers december pond

2011-12-17T15:31:00.000-05:00

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franklin clove trail loop

2011-12-10T17:15:00.002-05:00


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tappan zee exploration

2011-12-09T17:47:00.000-05:00

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NYBG holiday train show

2011-12-02T16:05:00.001-05:00

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google map

ross basin thanksgiving

2011-11-24T13:08:00.002-05:00

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sunday morning deck birds

2011-11-20T11:14:00.000-05:00

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the elusive pileated woodpecker

2011-11-19T17:06:00.001-05:00

Ramapo Reservation Sighting

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google map

red yellow brown

2011-11-14T17:23:00.001-05:00

Reds and yellows fade into brown
The last leaves hanging dead on the trees
The short days getting shorter
Soon the gray woods will fill with snow.

The sun low on the horizon at noon
A few hours of light before the long night
The season of fire and ice closes in on us
As we chop wood and seal windows.

If you can stay warm bundled in extra layers
If you have a warm shelter and hot food
If you can relax your shoulders tight against the cold
The season has its pleasures.

I love ice skating on the pond.
I love the feast days with friends and family.
I love the solstice lights sparkling with promise.
I love the communal voices singing together.

We are northern people.
The night theater lights come up as the sun descends.
Bears and the hunter in the sky canopy
And cold bones to remember the ancestors.

tower bird feeder

2011-11-09T13:39:00.000-05:00

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verona park, kips castle, eagle rock reservation

2011-11-05T19:50:00.002-04:00

verona park slide show
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kips castle slide show

eagle rock reservation slide show
google map

franklin clove waterfall

2011-10-23T19:48:00.000-04:00

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google map

new york botanical garden halloween

2011-10-22T17:13:00.000-04:00

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high mountain

2011-10-21T16:45:00.000-04:00

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google hike map

sterling lake south west

2011-10-16T10:06:00.001-04:00

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mount defiant and skylands garden

2011-10-10T19:37:00.000-04:00

mount defiant

skylands garden

google hike map
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walkill shawangunks rail trail

2011-10-09T16:53:00.000-04:00

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sandy hook october

2011-10-02T18:47:00.000-04:00

north end

fishermen's beach

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a walk in the woods and a tour of the mine

2011-10-01T17:47:00.001-04:00

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post ice age fast track

2011-09-13T17:00:00.001-04:00

The end of the last ice age
The beginning of agriculture and cities
On the fast track to 10 billion humans
Start everything 12,000 years ago.

All the eons of geological time
All the millions of years of evolution
But just 2 million years of homo genus ancestors
And just 200,000 years of homo sapiens.

Perhaps 30 million people alive then on earth
Perhaps all descended from 50 people
Our genetics so much the same in all of us
Becoming farmers and multiplying to 300 million.

200 years ago is a blink in time
Current events almost modern times
So suddenly the industrial revolution
Dominates all life on this planet.

More people alive today
Than all the people dead and gone.
More stuff manufactured in my lifetime
Than everything made by everyone before.

So many species decimated going extinct
The impact of human exploitation
The inexorable global warming catastrophe
The legacy we leave to our children.

In the darkest hour the contradictions rule
The dialectic engenders new ideas new struggles
The impossible inconceivable change happens
The old order collapses as a new system emerges.

back deck flowers from seed

2011-09-13T16:51:00.000-04:00

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willowwood garden

2011-09-04T09:42:00.001-04:00


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good looking people

2011-08-24T09:58:00.002-04:00

Riding the bike path along the Saddle River,
Looking at the good looking people there,
We go for exercise and health.
I enjoy being with my companion.

Making eye contact as we pass,
Some look back and smile or say hello.
Around us the light in the sky and on the water.
I see egrets, woodchucks, rabbits and a deer.

Musing about the Red Queen hypothesis as the pedals turn,
Thinking about Ridley’s take on the evolution of sex.
Noticing how I notice the cute young women,
Taking them in from a distance.

Is my attention determined by my genes?
Is this my male brain scanning for mates?
I am much too old for this.
I was never much for that.

She who rides with me sees their beauty, too,
Admiring their youthful form and energy.
Flirting and pairing or serene by themselves,
They are not interested in us.

noise filter

2011-08-13T13:24:00.003-04:00

If you walk in the woods as I do
Not far from an urban center
The human noise backdrop is always there
Nearby traffic and planes overhead.

If you are an older person as I am
Sounds do not fully separate.
The ability to selectively tune out
Some sounds from other sounds

Limits information
Decides some is noise to be ignored
Like static on a radio or snow
On an old time airwave TV show.

I hear everything commingled.
Nothing is filtered out.
There is no illusion about these woods
Where I am seeking the natural world.

What an auditory delight it was
Walking in the woods on vacation
Hearing the background silence
Amplify our footsteps.

rideau canal region

2011-08-11T14:22:00.004-04:00

Arrival at cottage on Whitefish Lake near Seeleys Bay

Whitefish Lake morning, Rock Dunder hike, Jones Falls dam and locks

Cataraqui Rail Trail to Chaffeys Lock, Chaffeys Lock, Eglin, Gananoque, Whitefish
Chaffeys Lock Tender interview

Charleston Lake, Delta
Whitefish Lane bike ride

Landon Bay, Eglin Stanley Cup, Cataraqui Trail to Forfar
daddy longlegs dance

Frontenac Park

Cataraqui Trail to Portland, Westport, Whitefish

happy surprise

2011-08-11T13:21:00.000-04:00

Early morning looking out across Whitefish Lake
Drinking my coffee to start my vacation day
One boat with fishermen casting about drifts by
Two kayaks paddle past going the other way.

The lake is quiet.
No motors, no wake.
Now I hear the call of the loon
Reaching across the lake.

Then I see the pair flying past
Big swimmer feet trailing behind
Calling so distinctively, a sound
I have not heard since childhood.

When we go out rowing around
We see them in the distance.
Binoculars confirm the neck ring
Before they dive and swim away.

Just now three popped up out there
In the middle of the lake
Though the power boats have arrived
Traveling down from Jones Falls locks.

They keep their distance
But they keep on living here
No matter that the engines roar
And water skiers rule the weekend afternoon.

These special birds are nearly gone
Chased from the New England lakes
Perhaps because their nests get drowned
In the wake of all the motorboats.

Perhaps it is the acid rain in New England
Killing the fish to cause their decline.
Why do these loons survive here in Ontario?
Such a happy surprise for me to find.

star bright

2011-08-11T07:25:00.002-04:00

On a clear moonless night in Canada
Looking north out over Whitefish Lake
The stars light up the dark silent sky.
There are no pictures to show you this.

The north star in the center so bright,
The very big big dipper swinging round it
Marking the hours passing
Counterclockwise, handle for a hand.

Around midnight I stand on the dock
Looking to the east along the shore
There’s the milky way millions of stars
Arching over angled like the earth’s angle.

Let me fix these things in my memory.
Next week I return to the noise and lights.
The city that never sleeps never sees these stars.
Let me remember the universe is out there.

loon cove whitefish lake

2011-08-07T14:32:00.001-04:00

distant nighttime calls

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whitefish lake row around

2011-08-07T12:57:00.000-04:00

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catskill scenic trail

2011-07-24T10:06:00.001-04:00

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July Cabin Webster Brook

2011-07-24T09:10:00.002-04:00

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party with the paynes

2011-07-16T22:13:00.001-04:00

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overpeck susans

2011-07-15T21:20:00.000-04:00

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sixties

2011-07-12T08:21:00.001-04:00

As you are turning sixty
And I am five years beyond that day
We are making plans for our next life
When we can relax and enjoy ourselves.

We hope to have a few more years
Being optimists about our health
And realists about our chances
Being together being alive.

As I remember the other sixties
When we were youthful activists
That seems to me like just yesterday
That proves for sure we are getting old.

I see you looking cute in your sun dress
And know the young girl is in there still
Living with the thoughtful grown woman
Who talks with me about our world today.

How lucky we are so late in life
To find each other and make this pair.
You know I love you the way you are
And how I love you more each day.

I know you love me just as much.
I trust your caring arms around me.
You are so dependable and true
Speaking sweet words of wisdom.

For many more mornings rising together
For many more field trips planned together
For many more nights saying good night
For many more happy days with you.

leonia sidewalk garden

2011-07-10T15:45:00.000-04:00

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d&r canal bike ride

2011-07-09T19:24:00.003-04:00

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jenny jump uacnj observatory

2011-07-07T09:33:00.000-04:00

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remembrance

2011-07-06T08:58:00.004-04:00

Your father was with us last night
As we walked around the old estate garden
Admiring the large trees growing there
Perhaps two hundred years their lifetime.

I suggested this place for our evening walk
A year to the day he died, saying
“He would have liked this place.”
And you were pleased to visit the grounds with me.

Last night I sensed your heavy heart grow lighter
Being a tree lover like your father, sharing that with him
The forester with all his knowledge passed to you
Now you teach me what he taught you.

This would make him happy.
This makes you happy.
Your sweet smile makes me happy
As I reach for the beech nuts to examine.

A doe appears as if our companion
Munching on day lilies, keeping near us
Browsing the lawn listening to our voices
As we pass through the old foundation.

Like your father who volunteered so much
You pull up a weed and think you might like
To volunteer to work here in this garden
For everyone to have and to hold and to enjoy.

We move past the ash and hickory trees
Past the chestnuts to the far corner of the garden
To the tree you have not yet recognized
From when we were here before.

A puzzle for us to solve together
I make observations on the leaf structure
And suddenly you see it is a yellowwood
And teach me something new.

The deer is still nearby eating
Something leafy growing on a tree trunk.
We wish the deer would eat the poison ivy.
We talk to it as if it is our pet.

As we walk back towards our car
The deer follows us unafraid.
I imagine reaching out to pat its flank
As if it could be the ghost of your father.

waterloo village morris canal

2011-07-03T10:17:00.000-04:00

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opposite shore midsummer eve

2011-06-30T21:33:00.000-04:00

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window replacement day

2011-06-19T09:16:00.000-04:00

cabin spring opening

2011-06-04T19:59:00.000-04:00

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windows on the teaneck creek park

2011-06-02T20:48:00.000-04:00

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jersey shore horseshoe crabs spawning

2011-05-21T17:37:00.001-04:00

Loire valley vacation

2011-05-14T05:29:00.005-04:00

arrival day

tourists

windows

smiling people

blois

la belle france

skylands manor house gardens

2011-05-07T19:29:00.000-04:00

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wading across troy meadow

2011-05-01T09:07:00.001-04:00

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weekday april evening walk

2011-04-22T08:37:00.000-04:00

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greenbrook peepers

2011-04-14T20:57:00.000-04:00

turkey display

2011-04-10T19:49:00.000-04:00

"that man took my picture!"

2011-04-03T19:19:00.001-04:00

I see you so young not 2 feet tall
Trudging along the mountain path
Stopping to pick up rocks then running
To get in front of your sisters
To be first leading the way
Into the big wide woods you go.

We, too, are hiking this way
Overtaking you with our longer legs
Enjoying our walk as the weather warms
Ready to welcome the migrant birds
Ready for the trees to flower and fill out
Their wings gathering birds sprouting leaves.

We have passed this way before
And never seen you here.
Today I see each step I take
With you delighted to adventure
Into the unknown for the first time.
Lead on, my precious one.