La Crosse

by

And But Then…

It’s been a long time. At least it feels so to me. I’ve been dealing with the illness of others and the care and feeding (and hospital runs) for animals too. Everything quite came tumbling down. When I had the time I couldn’t generate the energy to come here. That’s odd too as I’d normally find this a place to hide out and indulge in contemplation as well as creation. A restorative thing.

But here we are, back at the self-appointed station. Walking through the mist as there’s no way of walking around it. Of course I don’t find this photo creepy at all. It’s beautiful and serene. It has the feel of places past, of lost centuries. A carriage could pass along here and it would be no surprise. If you look closely to the left, you’ll see someone sitting on a bench.

creepyPlaces
posted by Creepy Places
And then, here below is a photo of a barge going down the Mississippi at La Crosse.
laXtribPosted by La Crosse Tribune

There’s no connection between the upper and lower photos, I just like them both. And I’ve been away. It seems the right reason, yes?

When I was little we used to sit in the park (Riverside Park) and watch the barges go by.  This is a small one by some standards. In those days there was much more river traffic than there is now.

by

Bridges & Arcs

Photo from La Crosse Tribune MacGilvray road, outside La Crosse

There is something about bridges. Alone, symbolic, creating a path to another shore. Who knows what will be found there? It’s the mystery and the answer together. Any type of bridge, crossing a river, stream, lake… Any size: huge, small, and “one car at a time” for the single road.

Arcs carry their own beauty. Someone called an arc the most perfect shape in nature. Why? Half a moon—beginning and end together? The alpha and the omega in one view. From the side— especially above water where you can see the reflection—you see the whole. The light and the dark sides. The coming together of everything. Thinking of it, there’s the arc from life to death. There’s the arc of the short story. (Try writing one without an arc.) The arc of a marriage?

And here we have the bridge and the arc together. Mmmmmmmm…what thoughts can we merge?

 

by

Historic La Crosse

On Facebook today, spotted gems of familiar (well sort of) places. These were posted by The La Crosse Tribune.

PeterThomsonTrib

Peter Thompson Photo City Square

This is the building that once was Barron’s, as called by locals. The E.R. Barron Co. department store was where my mother worked when I was in high school. My father or I would pick her up coming out of the side door way on the back left, next to the alley, on Friday nights. Now it is the setting for several small self-contained shops.

by

Reflection & Syncronicity

I was reflecting on the old home town, and the photos arrived on Facebook. That is such a lovely gift from the Universe. (Although and until I’m sure that the waters did it—moving from one place to another as is its way.) The view below is of Riverside Park, where so often we went with parents and children and sometimes to eat a lunch and watch the river flow by. The view behind the eagle and the street lights is as the street moves up through the town.

bobbgood

Bob Good Photography—La Crosse, WI—Riverside Park

 

And below is the photo of the Mississippi with the La Crosse bridge in the background. With the bridge seen from this perspective you can see how the one-way pattern of each blends together to create a lovely picture. That effect cannot be captured when viewed directly with the traffic flow. The photo was taken from the back of a boat so that is the wake from the motor that we see curving out behind the boat, in front of the bridge. Another lovely merging of arcs. Viewed as a whole, it appears to form a circle. The river, the bridge, the sky.

bobgoodPhoto

Bob Good Photography—Mississippi River Bridge—La Crosse

by

Bridges & Photos & Poems

Crossing the Mississippi River from La Crescent, Minnesota, into La Crosse, Wisconsin.downtown-la-crosse-13-bridge-across-mississippi-riverThis photo posted by Audrey Kletscher Helbling on her blog, Minnesota Prairie Roots.

The bridge on the left is my bridge, the one we walked across to get from our place along the Mississippi river to the other side. Pettibone Park and the swim beach awaited there. In the park there was also a lagoon where we ice skated in winter.

The bridge on the right, the smaller bridge, was added a few years back so now each is oneway. I was shocked to see the added bridge the last time I was home. The bridges are not the same color and certainly do not match in style. What offense to my childhood!

The erasure poem posted here on March 7, 2014, is about the bridge and river and sand. It’s about this bridge and a child’s feet that walked there with the past and the future, singing with the ghosts of time.