Time Traveling
~
careful hands
peel back cracked
and yellowed glassine
from faded aging pages
too often ignored
this dusty photo album
tonight
I’m liberating memories
life moments
immortalized
faces and places
call from another time
life’s had its bumps
and its beauty
bittersweetly
I time travel
~ ~ ~
rob kistner © 2020
I have been meaning to look at my family’s photo albums again. This is bittersweet.
Memories always are RW.
The best time travel to take. Nicely done quadrille.
Thank you Arcadia. 🙂
OMG i never thought i would find today’s prompt in album. Ingeious!!!
much????love
Thank you Gillena! 🙂
hi Rob, how’s it going…like this one…
“careful hands
peel back cracked
and yellowed glassine
from faded aging pages”
great opening…JIM
Thank you very much Jim. 🙂
That’s kind of what you & I have become, “faded aging pages” that must be handled with care. People like the stories from our lives, but cringe in the face of our disability. But, hey, you have risen, and there is a mighty quill in your hand. We are REDs. Retired–Extremely Dangerous .
I say fuck ‘em if they have no empathy. Thank you for the kind words. I thought you were going to say ridiculous, excessive and drunk. 🙂
There are a lot memories stored in photo albums. They really do transport us through time
Memories have a way of sneaking up on you from old photos.
Very nice Rob. I hope your glassine pages are fading as bad as some of mine. Did you know that if you take pictures of your photos with your iPhone, the quality is about as good as a copier and then they are digitized!
Thank you Dwight. Great idea anout using my iPhone to archive my photos.
Rob, in the time of covid I’ve been sorting through things, moving furniture around, etc. Several photo albums are currently sitting on the dining room table. You are so right about the time traveling. Why does it hurt so much to look through them these days?
It is difficult to look back I think because there is that warm memory and we feel the loss of that particular “self” that is gone forever.
I love how you interpreted the prompt word, Rob, and went time-travelling in your album. I recently sorted through a box of photos which are now waiting to be organised into an album. The opening stanza reminds me of my parents’ treasured albums, which sadly no longer exist; however, I managed to salvage some of the photos. I also like the phrase ‘liberating memories’.
Thank you Kim. Saving the past in photograph is so profound. You do’t realize it at the time, but there is always that certain shot — and a panorama of feeling and visuals, sometimes even smells come flooding out to sweep you away, 🙂 ;(
very clever use of today’s prompt … thanks for the memory trip with your music choice! Love the poem and the RED comment .. made me smile
Thank you Kate. Yes, Glenn’s RED explanation put a smile on my face.
I don’t dare look back. Nothing there but anchors, and I’ve cut all those moorings ages ago. Really enjoyed your presentation, though. Thanks, Rob.
Sorry you have that perspective. I had a shitty early childhood, the result of being born an orphan and the turbulent home I was adopted into. My adoptive farher was my salvation though, and most of the photos he took — all the great memories, which give me some sense of being grounded here on earth. Hard to explain, but those photos he took were a kinda roadmap for me in raising my 3 children. I wasn’t good at marriage until I was into my Early 40’s and onto my third wife — but I know I was a loving, somewhat sane father, because I learned what that looked and felt like. Oh well, long story.
Memories are bittersweet because they’re memories, I suppose. Once time has passed, you can’t get it back.
That is also why I find old photos precious Jane. They frequently spark memories I’d long forgotten.
Yes, sorting through old photographs is my pandemic project. Once upon a time, I used a camera with film…
I still have the camera I was given in 1965 for high school graduation Misky — Hasselblad Model 500 ensemble. I think I remember it being called “The System” at the time. Has 6 lens, 4 film backs and 4 viewfinders. I don’t use it anymore, but I will never sell it. It took incredible B&W pics! I used it to take color as well. But the beautiful definition and crisp shading in the B&W pics was/is my favorite. It was given to me by my adoptive father, and I will give it to my son, and hopefully he to my grandson. My grandson Alex is absolutely fascinated by it.
Those albums certainly can hold both bumps and beauty.
But they are all memories, and in that, they touch our heart, our aliveness — and anything that makes me feel alive I embrace these days Ken.
“life’s had its bumps
and its beauty”
Isn’t THAT the truth! I’ve heard it called “bru-tiful.” (Brutal and beautiful.)
I will remember that De — brutiful indeed!
It is SO good to see your excellence again, Rob. I missed it when you were on sabbatical. I moved in the midst of Covid, so spent a lot of time dealing with fading pages. BTW. did you ever finished that darned book?
Thank you Bev, you have always been kind. You popped into my thoughts from time to time over the past 6 months, as did Glenn and Lisa — and the dVerse experience. It’s been turmoil since February, so everything I was involved in got dropped. The only thing I kept somewhat active was my craft art. I am just now getting back to writing and sharing. Reading will engage again soon.
I find this remarkably beautiful and solemn, Rob. Time goes by so fast, we cherish the memories and moments from long ago when once it didn’t feel that long. I enjoyed stepping into your time machine and viewing your perspective on time and memories. Each page is distinct to the individual in the photograph, different memories of the same moment. How beautifully composed, especially with looking back in fondness at those hurdles and paths. Fantastic writing. I’ve been enjoying your work.
Such kind and sincere words Lucy , thank you! 🙂
This has such a sweetly ingrained nostalgia to it, Rob! Memories are bittersweet most of the time but oh being poets and writers we are the ones who cherish them the most!
Thank you Sanaa… 🙂
I have been going over pictures from my mother… and it’s amazing to time travel, and a bit sad as well.
It is a sweet sadness though Bjorn, as you know… 😐