Contents
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Sketchbook

a journal for eastern and western forms

 

Ekphrastic Free Verse

Bernard Gieske, Poet

Amy Gieske, Photorapher

 

Next Door Neighbors Moving In

 

restlessly reinventing their spaces,
weaving their choices into the neighborhood,

Discontent with the already,
bushes gone, daylilies dug up,
trees cut back, grass seed sown.

Is this the way we communicate
shaping lawns and places
and someone else’s landscape?

From my upstairs bedroom a new view
of lawn chairs and potted plants.
Another shelter transformed into home.
Something new, something shared.

In our daily lives
we exchange places.
Neighborhoods are changed,
bound by other’s choices.
 



Southern Charm:  Photo by Amy Gieske

Neighbors

 

Our neighbor whoever he or she may be
whether a friend or an enemy
is one we must do unto
as they to us also do.

All of us talk a bit about our neighbors
But fewer still have said a bit about neighborliness.

I could quote you quite a few: J. Calvin and B. Franklin,
J. J. Audubon, G. K. Chesterton,
Pietro Aretino, Francis Bacon and Sitting Bull,
Dunbar, Confucius, J. F. K., and Matthew of Gospel fame ––
but I do not want to add to your shame.

I’m sure of some we are glad
And then of some we get mad.
Whether I fall in either there is no question of a doubt
And more likely I fall in both when I am out and about


 

Amy Gieske is a self-taught photographer/artist currently living in Bowling Green, KY. With a deep love of the outdoors, bright colors, quirky (her word), and singular subject matter; she is constantly framing up the world around her. She loves to travel and rarely leaves home without a camera. To see more of her work, you can find her page on Facebook: Amy Gieske Art + Photography. She also has a site on flickr:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/gieske/

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