Category Archives: Photographs

	We ride away from each other, waving our hands,
	While our horses neigh softly, softly . . .
		Li Po (“Taking Leave of a Friend”)

No Luddite sure, yet technology’s unwanted intrusion 
reminds of the woodpecker’s rapid-fire assault 
on the eave, on the metal roof, on the  smudge pot lids

closed cold in the orchard when I was a boy.  I wonder
about their rattled minds, what natural shock absorbers
slide like hydraulic cylinders between bill and brain

to cushion their rat-tat-tat attacks on the world.
Our push button culture saves jillions of steps 
that leave invisible trails nonetheless, for invaders 

we don’t want to see, don’t care about— yet 
tech has allowed me to know you and Chinese poetry
from half-way ‘round this distressed planet.