Doctor HP Flowers

The Unreported

   I know they have to tell the big stories, those mass media people.  But, maybe some day we'll hear about the other ninety percent - the rest of the story.  Like the loss of thousands of livestock.  Archives and public records.  Dirt tracks.  Missing rice fields and catfish ponds.  Katrina destroyed this year's sugar cane planting; and, the huge sugar refinery in Chalmette Louisiana, the parish seat of St. Bernard Parish and site of the 'Battle of New Orleans', is out of commission.  That's 900,000 short tons of refined white crystal sugar a year shortfall - a lot of Breyers Mud Pie ice cream with caramel swirls, Nabisco chocolate crème oreo's and devil's food snack-wells, tootsie rolls and junior mints, and my morning chocolate cake donut and large coffee with half&half and three packets of Sweet-and-Low.

Title:          Wrecked Sugar Refinery.
Artist:        John Singer Sargent, 1918

Blow Out

"I finally realized that I had watched too much hurricane coverage when I dreamed that Katrina and Rita were still patrolling our vulnerable shores."

--  H. Pathos Flowers

 

Artist:  Hundertwasser

Not If, But When

Kids get lost.
Dogs run loose.
Old folks perish.

Title:           Flood Disaster. 1951
Artist:          Thomas Hart Benton

'It's O.K.'

     "Disgusting.  Putrid slime. Toxic ooze.  Destructive battering. Deadly fury.  Floating bodies.  Killer storm surge. The weak trapped in their attics by rising water.  Rapes, fires, looting."  The wholesome image of my beloved water suffered dreadfully at the hands of Hurricane Katrina.  Water behaved badly and I hurt, too.

     It's about water.  My 40-year professional career focused on water exclusively - running water, clean water - as an educator and scientific professional, and once passionate advocate.  My 20-years on the road doing amateur photography followed each track straight to the nearest water; I'm hypnotized by its capacity to flow so effortlessly and calmed by its flawless sense of direction.  My one-and-only photography exhibit, the 19 ways of water, was called L'esprit de L'eau. The Spirit of Water, in natural light.

     This bubble burst after seeing the shock and despair and human tragedy wrought by water.  I began to wonder if I could ever post another romanticized water scene.  How could it be viewed as other than naïve or worse, indifferent.  Where's the first responder.  Where's the shelter.

     Not long ago I plunged into the vast sea of Japanese woodblock prints, and printmaking, collectively called Ukiyo-e, the 'floating world.'  Ukiyo-e landscapes keep things simple and never make judgments.  The viewer is always encouraged to become a part. These restful leaves, the strong reflections, the light gradations seemed well suited for a woodblock print, and a way to say it's time again. 'It's O.K."

    

Title:            © Floating Leaves.
Series:           Water Scenes
Location:        Stone Mountain Lake
                      DeKalb County, Georgia
Date:             25 October 2003

Impressions

     While workin here at my desk tonight I reached out and flicked this little bug pretty hard with my fingernail.  The impact drove it sailing smack into the barrel of a red Sharpie at the base of the lamp.  Wobbily it rose, antlers sampling, and staggered across the flash memory cartridge around the Swiss Army Knife that Rankin Rob gave me and squeezed under the real-ink stamp pad.

     In a few seconds here it comes, charging out, apparently not seeking any payback retaliation, but resolutely scampering between things here and there on the desk. A quick scoot by the scissors, then a dart across the hand calculator keypad.  A race along the mouse chord in a smooth S-curve to the tape dispenser ending with a squirm beneath the postage stamps edging around the back of the lamp to the stamp pad - only to sprint the circuit again.  Then again, and again…

     Watching this frenzy unfold I began to wish I hadn't flicked it so… so thoughtlessly.

    

Title:            © Footprint.  r0388-03
Series:           Monochromes
Location:        Stokes Bluff Landing
                    Effingham County, Georgia
Date:             Thursday 27 September 1990

Fully Boxed

    The Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene Carolina, has seen and survived hundreds of hurricane Katrinas, and will see and survive hundreds more before its days on this Earth are finished.

Title:            © Road Warrior.  r0298-12
Series:           None of the Above
Location:        Buchanan County, Virginia
Date:             Friday 9 June 1989

Follow the Light

I must cross the divide
To reach the other side.

Title:            © Plank Bridge.  r0155-11
Series:           Road Scene
Location:       Chattahoochee National Forest
                     White County, Georgia
Date:             Sunday 28 September 1986

Take Your Pick

     Elected officials. Governors. Mayors. Republicans. Democrats. Looters. Looting peace officers. Liberals. Conservatives. Anarchists. Pacifists. Smarmy TV anchors. Unctuous loudmouths. Hysterics.   Histrionics.  Addled bureaucrats. Venal name callers. Witch hunts. Scapegoats.  Hatemongers. Posturing fakers. Gouging profiteers.

     I went to my background file and plucked out an old yellowed article on 'How the Wheel was Invented.'

Stage 1:  Place rollers beneath heavy objects
Stage 2:  Place skids under heavy objects
Stage 3:  Place rollers under skids under heavy objects
Stage 4:  Skids gouge grooves on rollers
Stage 5:  An illiterate peasant notices how good it works

… 3500 BC was a very good year for that!

Toxic Stew

"The storm blew all the birds away!"

Will it be enough

"It wasn't until the levy bust
     That the waters began to rise…"