All he could think of was death as the last colored leaf fell from the expanse of oak trees that lined the street.  The death of autumn could only be caused by the pernicious cold of winter returning in its arrogantly triumphant manner, he thought to himself as he strolled down the street, arms wrapped around his body with his rough hands gripping ( Read more... )

The airplane rested at the gate, her checked baggage waited and followed the same circular path as all the others until she would come for it.  Only four hours prior, she had forgotten the monotony of everyday life, but now she was back.  Back to the same small wooden house on the same paved street where she had lived for the past five years.

( Read more... )

From now on, I will be posting strictly images and stories related to classical music.  A piece will be preselected from my library of classical music, and then used to create images and/or stories from the melodic content of the composition.

Feel free to comment the images that the pieces evoke in your mind as well.

Disillusion caused by misinformation
Doubts sweeping higher like a rising tide
Questions of sincerity plague the soul
Threatening to break tangible memories

Fear shatters a most decisive nature
Rearing a solitary bewilderment
Known to leave traces of pain
Never to fully recover from the scars

Draining hearts of vulnerability
Disbelief and doubt crowd the void
Sturdily cementing barriers in place
Until all feeling becomes foreign.

In the opening line of one of my favorite Ted Leo songs ("Shake the Sheets"), he sings, "I said, "I wonder how it is I'm standing here, while war is raging everywhere under the sky?" ".  I was reading a letter from my great grandmother's brother Bass van Elderen dated February 14, 1915.  He was one of the first of my relatives to immigrate to ( Read more... )