Sonnet in Venice

I go to Venice quite a lot, because my friend’s apartment is right down the street, so every time in LA we walk around, have lunch at the World Cafe.








As long as I have had my camera (almost two years now), I have never brought it out in Venice.

I’m not sure why, but I suspect it has something to do with all the other cameras people carry around, snapping so many shots ad naseuam


I mean, as much as taking shots of skateboarders might be a Venice Beach cliché, how can I NOT take shots of skateboarders?




(At least there are no shots of the buffed men on Muscle Beach)

But like taking pictures in Manhattan (see my previous post) or in Paris, which I will do this summer, I just need to shoot what strikes me, not what “defines” Venice Beach or New York or any the place, but what strikes me.





"Shul on the Beach"










Because an image raises questions.




What are the relationships here?







I firmly believe that a powerful mage is a wormhole (see previous post) that transports us not necessarily to the spot where the picture was taken and the time within which it was shot (although that too), but to a place in the imagination.



"White Bird in the White"









An image carries a story.














Why is this guy carrying a ladder to the beach?








Or is about to tell a story.












Or remembers a story that has already been told.

AWP in Chicago

Even though we were in Chicago for four days, I only brought out the camera twice.

One morning, before Sasha woke up, I bundled up in my coats and sweater and walked around and took some shots.

I had no image of what I wanted to shoot, just whatever struck me.



"Chicano, Illinois"














"Orange Trees"






"Path"









"Borders"








"Faces"



















































And then, on the last day of the conference, I took a few shots at a panel I moderated called the Debut Chicano Novel, and later that night, a bunch of us went out.




Author Fred Arroyo






Fred Arroyo and Tim. Z. Hernandez





















"Down on the Corner"










"Drain"












Poet Marisol Baca












Luis Alberto Urrea, author of "Queen of America"












"Opposites Attract"










"Chicano Debut Novelists Lucrecia Guerrero, Melinda Palacio and Daniel A. Olivas,





Chairman of the Board Rigoberto Gonzalez




Poets Andre Yang and Cynthia Guadardo





Novelist Randa Jarrar