North Dakota Veterans Cemeterydrifting snow
covers wreaths
and headstones...
for everything
there is a season
A few miles south of Mandan the remains of hundreds of military veterans rest, some with their spouses. On a dreary January day I drove there with my camera to find this scene. At the start of the Christmas season volunteers placed wreaths against the stones; the drifted snow partially covering the two objects reminded me of the poetry of Ecclesiastes 3: for everything there is a season. Here I saw two seasons represented: a religious holiday and a person's life.
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I've been wanting to make my blogspot more interesting. Since I'd like to improve my poetry writing I constantly study the forms that interest me most. Lately I have discovered and read as many of the above style as I can find on the internet. The verse form is the five-line tanka and by combining the poem with narrative prose and a picture you come up with photo-tanka-prose, not that it matters one bit to anyone except the few of us who write that style. Of course, all it does is to keep those few of us happy knowing that we are practicing something that has a name. I hope the picture is bright enough to be effective. I fear I may have to invest in a better camera, but what the heck, Mary always tells me I can't take it with me even though I then respond I just want to make sure it lasts. At any rate, I will be utilizing this format for awhile which just means until I find something I'd rather do. In a week or two I will go back to my once-a-week schedule, but I may experiment a bit more and post a few extra.
