The 60-Second Sabbath

Photography

  • Koi

    No matterhow tightlyI grasp, their thick, slick, torpedo bodiesslide through my fingers–cold slices of weightless fire. The pond,the fish,the grasping hand… which am I? Text and image © 2014 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • Fault Lines

    We all have fault lines–    hidden veins of weakness,    those places where,    when stressed,    we are most likely to crack. Patch them with holy spackle:    bread and wine,    exchanged embraces,    stillness. Text and… Continue reading

  • Fear Not

    The angel appeared."Fear not," he said. "You always say that," I said."Whenever you pop in,you always start with,'Fear not.'What's up with that?" He sighed."Because no one listenswhen they're afraid–not to spouses, neighbors, friends,family members, store clerks–they just don't listen.It's so… Continue reading

  • Sophia Again

    She stepped from the broom closetlike a dinner guest exiting the powder room."Missed me?" she asked. "Like gas pain," I answered. "You know I'm here to relieve the pain?" "Yes, I know that." She eyed the box of Russel Stovers… Continue reading

  • Another Serenity Prayer

    God, just for today,grant me freedomfrom the desire to beanywhere or anyone else. Amen. Text and image © 2014 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • Pines

    This was my stand of pines,my sanctuary,my refuge from adolescent angst.Here I kneltand inhaled stability. Now they are stumps. Do slaughtered trees leave ghosts?I am haunted by the stickiness of pitchand the scent of sun-warmed needles. Text and image ©… Continue reading

  • If It Comes to That

    If it comes to thatI shall travel aloneto that far shore;I shall worshipand know rapture. Praise is never a lonely pursuit;union defines adoration.Who can separate the Loverfrom the Beloved? Text and image © 2014 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.… Continue reading

  • Gentle Lunacy

    He wandered our small town'smid-century streets,disconnected wonder in his face. "A lunatic," mother said,though such gentle lunacyseemed a truer way to greet lifethan how we(busy, busy)leaped past it. Text and image © 2014 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • Walls

    At duskI come upon the ruinsof an ancient wall.It's graying rocks,lichen-covered and rain-smoothed,rise like disintegrating teethabove the black-eyed Susansand Queen Anne's laceof the field. Whose hands gathered and stacked these stonesand to what purpose?Was I to be kept out?Were you to… Continue reading

  • What If?

    What iflocked inside of methere is an individualso brilliantly creative,so astonishingly original,that, if liberated,he would revolutionize    medicine or literature or technology    or psychology or peace-making or religion? What if fear has kept him hiddenall these decades? What if… Continue reading