Kicking from birth, waging battles
in the clouds, angels in free fall
push their luck.

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Starling | Sturnus vulgaris

A stained-glass sphinx rules a haunted world
of torn-up roads, on a never-ending search
for her shadow.

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Chinese Praying Mantis | Tenodera aridifolia sinensis

Bored with beauty, a cardinal glances
to the side and then blinks,
the only one still awake.

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Northern Cardinal | Cardinalis cardinalis

A flurry of wings showered in sparks
from the sun, dressed for success in gold.

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Honey bee | Apis mellifera

No chance to lure her back to the civilized world,
ready to jump off the cliff of gravity.

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Eastern black carpenter ant | Camponotus pennsylvanicus

No Boundaries
Making up for lost time, an egret leaps
into the sun, a showgirl with no boundaries.

The Walls of Heaven
Like a wizard crafting spells in threes, a gyrfalcon
so bright he dissolves the walls of heaven.

Fiery Tails
Trailing the last moments of daylight
in the twilight streets, fiery tails
excite the air.

As part of “Canton’s Acts of Culture Week 2014″, I held a photography workshop
at the Canton Public Library. Some of the best photos were taken by Akash Nallani.

Dick Wagner
The great rock guitarist Dick Wagner is gone. I’ve been a fan
since his time leading The Frost; I was fortunate to see them
many times at sock hops around Detroit.

I made this portrait of him not long ago and it was a real pleasure
to know it was one of his favorites; he used it as the cover
of his last album, “Captured”.

It takes a great spirit to make such great music – rest in peace, Dick Wagner.

Golden Bullets
Late for a forgotten appointment with the sun,
mallards transform into golden bullets.

Hiding Her Obsessions
A newcomer to the pollination game, she slips
out of focus while arranging her flight, hiding
her obsessions to keep the world at bay.

Lost God
Looking for cab fare, traveling from dawn to dusk,
a lost god falls into a colorful snare.

Leaping into a new year, memories of
the past evaporate in the wind.

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Great White Egret | Ardea alba

An egret spreads greetings in the
language of night, a memory of stars
losing their belief in gravity.

Rounding up rising stars, a honey bee
breaks into the halls of sleep, finding little music,
but so much silence.

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Honey bee | Apis mellifera

The deadliest ornament waits for the holidays,
filling stockings with dry leaves
and wild hurricanes.

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Chinese mantis | Tenodera aridifolia sinensis

Stripped down to her soul, she finds the still point,
her future a myth dreamed by the past.

Prints of The Still Point are in a dozen collections, including
Penn State University, and was part of the 2006 exhibition
Nature Reperceived at Gallery Project in Ann Arbor.

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Eastern black carpenter ant | Camponotus pennsylvanicus

Like a wizard crafting spells in threes, a gyrfalcon
so bright he dissolves the walls of heaven.

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Gyrfalcon | Falco rusticolus

A fly is just barely present, scavenging a green world
empty of sense, a tiny waif mining for memories.

A frog in his sunset world, watching midges
circle like golden dust above a pool
of silver light.

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Green Frog | Rana clamitans

Challenged by unforeseen events, a honey bee
picks up steam in a world fraught with danger.

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Honey bee | Apis mellifera

A songbird in a rush to find his lost youth, searching
through the silence, one tiny ripple
in an infinite sky.

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Sparrow | Passer domesticus

A lost explorer searches for shelter
as daylight burns out, trapped in a fairy tale
with a shady past.

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Greater Angle-wing Katydid | Microcentrum rhombifolium

Sharp as a mirrors’ broken edges, a songbird
directs traffic with supernatural sensitivity.

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Sparrow | Passer domesticus

A new-born mantis is all but invisible,
master of ceremonies at a lunatic carnival.

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Chinese mantis | Tenodera aridifolia sinensis

From Hawkfest over the weekend, a celebration of the
annual fall migration of birds of prey – hawks,
owls, eagles, falcons and vultures.

Soaring through the shadows, she unhooks
the wind from its shackles.

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Bald Eagle | Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Stitching together memories, the midnight stirring
of sleeping beasts produces reason.

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Sawfly Larva

A katydid searches for the garden’s last joule of energy,
filing away her dreams in a hidden knothole.

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Greater Angle-wing Katydid | Microcentrum rhombifolium

The night sun shines on a feral hunter, her moves
the perfect pitch of articulated ease.

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Chinese mantis | Tenodera aridifolia sinensis

Ready to take on the world, a honey bee
maps the position of every leaf and bloom.

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Honey bee | Apis mellifera

Rushing to meet another day, a wide-eyed
goldfinch bluffs his way through flight school.

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American Goldfinch | Carduelis tristis