Footsteps Over
*The following poem is offered in response to the One Stop Poetry Sunday Picture Prompt Challenge. This wonderful prompt was shot by photographer Iquanyin Moon, featured today on One Shoot Photography Sunday. Come check out some great shots & the interview by Chris Galford!
You cannot see me
Hidden beyond the frame
Roasting on a sun-caked dune
So far lost to ever explain
Spare white t-shirt
Patting sweat off face
When beads fall into
Unctuous sizzles
Shrinks in form
Penumbral stains
Kind of like us
I guess
Meaning does not stay
These footsteps raised
Over journeys gone
Hallucinating from scorching rays
As the sun beats merciless
And I whisper her name
Feeling we may only find
Footsteps over someone’s grave
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*The above poem was written for One Stop Poetry’s Sunday Picture Prompt Challenge. Check it out! Everyone is always welcome to play along with the challenges. Thank you. Also, One Stop has been nominated for a Shorty Award in #ART CATEGORY
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Dustus Blog 
January 30, 2011 at 12:23 am
Wow…impressions of this photography and so much depth of this poem/ almost can feel an echo from it…haunting, and an unusual sense felt that carries with it “strength” too, perhaps the placement felt of the journey..amazing writing (always I think amazing your work…I need a knew word…LOL) 😉 I am in awe…. and a quiet bow to you! …wow! ~April
January 30, 2011 at 12:26 am
Nice and cute poem 🙂 “These footsteps raised, Over journeys gone” I liked these lines 🙂
January 30, 2011 at 12:27 am
Oh I loved it .. I want to say more about it, but I don’t know enough about poetry, but I really loved it.
January 30, 2011 at 1:01 am
Another wonderful write, Dustus…. You too focused there on the reversed depth of ‘these footprints raised, over journeys gone’. Sweet!
January 30, 2011 at 1:13 am
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January 30, 2011 at 1:30 am
I loved – “And I whisper her name
Feeling we may only find
Footsteps over someone’s grave”
very deep and sublime write. all the best.
January 30, 2011 at 2:15 am
Chills down my spine!!
Feeling we may only find
Footsteps over someone’s grave
January 30, 2011 at 2:50 am
The ending is brilliant…
Love your work 🙂
January 30, 2011 at 3:27 am
That last line is haunting and intimidating and seems tightly wrapped in subversive drama! Loved this connection between the tactile and the inner universe!
January 30, 2011 at 4:54 am
amazing, Adam! but i don’t think i’ve ever read anything of yours that wasn’t brilliant. the ending was unexpected so that much more powerful. love this!!!
January 30, 2011 at 7:35 am
I really like this; the vividness of the imagery. I also like the idea of roasting on a sand dune. I’m sick of snow and cold winds.
January 30, 2011 at 8:08 am
ooo…very nice dustus…particularly the close…you are slow to bring us into the meat of what is going on painting us a nice picture first…i like…
January 30, 2011 at 8:26 am
this last stanza made me shiver adam – always a lot of deep emotions in your writing
January 30, 2011 at 8:38 am
Adam,
I found myself carried along, totally immersed in the moment as I read…then the last lines! Well done…finding those perfect last lines that just bring the piece into its own is my favorite…you rocked it here!
January 30, 2011 at 8:48 am
Sun-caked dunes, t-shirts, halluncinations, stepping over graves – you’ve captured the haunting charactersitics of the photo. (I spent a lot of time looking at how the footprints are placed, and what the placement suggests about the person making them; hallunicating might be a good way to consider that.) Nice one, Adam.
January 30, 2011 at 8:49 am
I agree with Claudia, your poems are with emotion, and that is the kind of poems I like, one you feel a connection with. great job
January 30, 2011 at 9:14 am
I learned a couple of new words here Adam, and the walk from the beginning of the poem to the end was tender. Must be the sun scorched sand. I like the hook on the end. Ah, relationships…
January 30, 2011 at 9:37 am
You carved some nice words out of this prompt Dustus.
January 30, 2011 at 10:31 am
Love your response to the photo prompt…you gave it an extra dimension with you words.
January 30, 2011 at 10:33 am
your foot steps and mine ~ now just mine walking the sand ~ your wamrth besides me #haiku
January 30, 2011 at 10:50 am
Intense image of one shouldering on, the sun and the desert walk building to the intimidating, and powerful revelation: “And I whisper her name
Feeling we may only find
Footsteps over someone’s grave” So descriptively put, Dustus! An emotionally charged end to a relationship…as all do tend to be…and the heart yearns for what was…but are we not but beating ourselves down deeper as we straddle something dead and gone beneath the sand? Splendid.
January 30, 2011 at 10:51 am
Nice wondering feeling in this one as If you’re walking along thinking thoughts in your own head and then comes a little eureka moment. Adam, what a lovely read x
January 30, 2011 at 10:59 am
Amazing work and polar opposite of how I looked at the picture:
January 30, 2011 at 11:29 am
I really like the first stanza.
January 30, 2011 at 1:56 pm
i liked the ponderings…and yes the footsteps raised…i asked if they were raised or sunk–is it optical illusion? b/c logically they should be sunk…so that puts irony in this photo right away…
your pun was funny and maybe true? do you know if you’re coming or going? i don’t think a lot of people do.
January 30, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Admittedly, I’m often too confused to even answer that. lol Right you are though about those footprints. Talk about photography that stops me dead in my tracks, and apparently continues to cause awful puns on my part. lol Thanks, Abby
January 30, 2011 at 3:09 pm
shiver
January 30, 2011 at 6:09 pm
A brilliant take on an equally brilliant picture promt in this weeks One Shoot Sunday. The images you have created with your piece takes the promt even further…forcing me to rethink my own! Fantastic write, once again.
January 30, 2011 at 7:12 pm
I liked the feeling of this poem. -and I almost wish it was that hot right now 🙂 But even though you speak of the heat, this has more of a symbolic “winter” feel. Great write!
January 30, 2011 at 8:31 pm
I admire the way you extracted so much from the image
Peace, hp
January 30, 2011 at 8:50 pm
Those last 2 lines gave me a chill. I love unexpected endings.
Zouxzoux aka CharlotteAsh on Twitter 😉
January 30, 2011 at 9:08 pm
amazing. so much you don’t know. yet somehow…you do. thank you, adam, for this beautiful piece that speaks directly to memory and spirit.
January 30, 2011 at 9:19 pm
I’m amazed by your process and the results you achieve with your photography. I need an iPhone! My iPad has no camera. lol Thank you for stopping by. All the best to you 🙂
January 30, 2011 at 9:09 pm
D…if you ever have a spare moment and you care to read some other pieces, I would appreciate your time…you have an excellent grasp of words and that is my blood in writing…as my blog header states…just words
http://hpicasso.blogspot.com/
Peace, hp
January 30, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Sure. Thank you for the kind compliment, hp.
January 31, 2011 at 12:30 am
Love your ending! In my book ending makes it or breaks it. I just submitted my first poem to your wonderful site. Thank you!
January 31, 2011 at 1:35 am
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January 31, 2011 at 6:55 am
This is so intense.. it started on a sad note and ended on a sadder note..
I guess, once one leaves, it’s only footsteps that remains.. alas!!
I need to stop by more often.. 🙂
Wishing you a beautiful 2011
Hugs xx
January 31, 2011 at 12:59 pm
you paint such amazing pictures out of another picture 😉 wow !
January 31, 2011 at 11:02 pm
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February 1, 2011 at 3:12 am
Ooohh..your writings stir my senses, Adam!! And so did this one!
The last 2 lines gave me a slight shiver… the yearning revealed in those lines speaks volumes!
Feverishly captivating!!
February 2, 2011 at 9:25 pm
…kind of like us – meaning does not stay. Ouch. Great take on the photo! And thank you for your kind comments on my struggling attempts at poetry.
February 13, 2011 at 1:21 am
After so many lovely comments, I think there is nothing left for me to say after reading this, only that it was really touching, loved the ending! Happy Sunday Adam!