Shadow of Our Photographer

How many people have come here
once in one lifetime?
          from other continents and this,
          from down the road a bit,
          during summer of 39 or Autumn of 93,
          before or after,
          to look at this mountain and that valley,
          to walk a few steps on this trail,
          to take this photograph
          that sits in how many albums
          showing familiar figures
          who stand before known stone and tundra,
          and showing unknown figures
          who take the same picture.

Shadow of Our Photographer

Bob Komives

I have come thirty times.
First, from a thousand miles and forty years away.
Now, through twenty years from forty miles.
Each time I stand in awe
of this public beauty and my private privilege,
and, for a moment,
each time I imagine all who have shared them.

Sometimes,
far from here,
among strangers
enjoying separately a common experience,
I think of here
and want to ask if we have it in common too
--a memory that would make us kin.

I have never braved that question.
But, here, today,
I will ask you about a distant place I once visited.
For if we share two places
we will meet for the first time as old friends.

No matter your answer,
we will go separate ways
to add like photograph to like album,
to write, perhaps,
a note about this place,
and include, perhaps,
something about the shadow of our photographer.

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 1999 :: Shadow of Our Photographer :: ,9905