things they have not thought about before"
Collins English Dictionary
..." She was at work on
what they said was her greatest picture when she took sick,
and every day and every night it was her
prayer to be allowed to live till she got it done, but she never got the chance. It was a picture of a young
woman in a long white gown, standing on the
rail of a bridge all ready to jump off, with her hair all down her back, and
looking up to the moon, with the tears running down her face,
and she had two arms folded across her
breast, and two arms stretched out in front,
and two more reaching up towards the moon-
and the idea was,
to see which pair would look best and then
scratch out all the other arms;
but, as I was saying, she died before she
got her mind made up, and now they kept this picture over the head of the bed in her room, and every time her
birthday come they hung flowers on it. Other times it was
hid with a little curtain. The young woman in the picture had a kind of a nice sweet face, but there was so many arms it made her look too
spidery, seemed to me." ...
.................. Emmeline's Greatest Picture, from The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn
internet photo
DECISION
standing on bridge peak
swirling waters far below
she contemplates life
Each line that you have shared here... pauses me to think Judie. When I think of all the different arm positions, I think of the stills in a movie... and if I were that woman? The photographer or the one on the bridge? All I have is this one still moment, captured here in word and image...
ReplyDeleteSobering, yet obviously written with love...
ReplyDeleteAnd yet in the picture no hand reached out to her as she contemplated whether to die or not. We must always reach out to the one in need of our help, Judie.
ReplyDeleteGreat and thought-provoking.
I'm not sure what to read into this. I do know that it was beautiful. A woman with many arms contemplating suicide. She wanted to be stopped. The arms a sign of grab me, I' m sinking?
ReplyDeleteGorgeous photography and very contemplative haiku!
ReplyDeleteHappy Weekend to you,
artmusedog and carol
It was fun to peek in on some of your art.
ReplyDeleteSome of life's decisions we simply don't understand...
ReplyDeleteMaking lots of arms not liking the way any looked... became wings of the artist.
ReplyDeleteAs she contemplates, I wish she see the light.
ReplyDelete