Photo Sunday, Shadows

Shadows.

Jessica.

Walks With Frost

about the photo.
One night my daughter Hadley was blowing bubbles on our back deck.  I took photos.  As I watched her, and looked at the images coming up, I liked the shadowy effect.  It looked like she was putting on an old-fashioned shadow puppet show for me.  I feel like I have always looked into the shadows of things because they hold secrets.  I began to think that every time one of Hadley's bubbles popped it was her little brother, Frost's hands reaching out from the shadows to play.  He was helping us to see the secrets of where he had gone.  -Jessica.

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Untitled.
Amy McCarter.
Surviving the Day EveryDay.

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Shadow Belly.
Ceil.

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Shadow Steps.
Julie Cozens.

about the photo
I participated in the Walk to Remember in Melbourne last weekend. For me, this picture tells the story of the walk. Literally it is a picture of one footstep, it's my foot and my shadow. Figuratively it tells my grief story. I carry the shadow of Thomas' death, its connected to me and I carry it everywhere I go, even on the days it's not visible. I did the walk alone, in a crowd of a thousand, sadly this picture also tells the story of my loneliness in grief. -Julie

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Shadow.
Holly.
Momentum.


about the photo.

Just enough strength to stay afloat
I await my turn to find a glimmer of light
A momentary escape from the shadows
Which hold my soul captive.
-Holly


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Naked and Alone.
Audrey.
Glutton Button.

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Shadow.
Kieran.
Radar of Chance (Kieran's wife Louise)  

about this photo.
I am Laura's Dad. I considered writing something about Laura's shadow over our lives or such, but that's not what this image is about. I take photographs for all sorts of reasons; but mostly because image-making is how I define myself. I continue to make images, even after Laura, because I don't know how not to. This shadow lives near my house and only comes out at night. -Kieran

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Thank you to everyone who participated in still life 365's Photo Sunday. Photo Sunday is a regular monthly feature of still life 365. On the second Sunday of each month, we will showcase photographs taken around the monthly theme. Monthly themes are announced and explored in various weekly creative challenges. See the sidebar to explore more of November's challenges. The goal of Photo Sunday is to highlight the art of photography and help explore different aspects of grief through the camera lens.

Next Sunday is Mid-Month Challenge in which you can choose any medium, including photography, to explore the theme of Shadows. Also, next Sunday (November 21st) is the deadline for submitting a piece for the still life 365 printed journal. Please see this post for more information.

To Frost and From Frost to his Mama, Jessica Davis

 To Frost

by Jessica Davis

 

If I didn't know you

before the sun,

my eyes wouldn't

shine as bright.

If I didn't see you

before the sea,

my tears wouldn't

be as true.

If I didn't hear you

before the birds,

my song wouldn't

sweeten the wind.

If I didn't paint you

before the sky,

the sunsets would

all be blue.

If I didn't dream you

before the night,

the stars would

fall from the sky.

If I didn't have you

before my heart,

I wouldn't know love at all.

And If I didn't feel

your tiny hand

holding on to mine,

the World would stop

and ask me...

"What happened to our friend?"

 

 :::

 

From Frost to His Mama

 

I'll leave a light on for you

and call it the Moon.

Through tree tops in Winter

you'll see it shine.

And remember.

It will light your way to me

with the softest glow.

The kind that warms

Autumn's early chill.

My light will guide your feet,

like those of a child.

Whispering through the cushion

of Summer-soft grass.

In the Springtime,

it will show you

the place in your heart

where a home has grown.

Look up,

my light is smiling at you.

I'll leave a light on for you

and call it the Moon.

Follow it back to me.

 

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about the pieces.

Jessica talks about her pieces, "I wrote both of these poems on the same day in October before our baby boy, Frost, died in December.  They were meant to be happy little bits of my thoughts that I would share with him as he grew.  After I completed them, I felt an overwhelming sense of fate in them.  I cried.  I didn't know why, maybe just all of the normal worries a Mother feels.   After we lost Frost, the meaning of the poems changed for me.  I found them again, in the little notebook I had written them down in, a few weeks after he had died.  I sobbed again, I felt that I had not listened to my own words.  I did not see what was going to happen to us even though my words seemed to spell it out so clearly.  The first poem I called: To Frost.  The second, I did not give a title.  I now feel that the second poem was from Frost to me.  My little baby was telling me that he will be there for me, I just have to find him."

 

about the poet.
Jessica is the mother of two children living in Kansas.   Her first child, Hadley, is 8 years old and was so ready to be a big sister to Frost.  Frost, her son, was stillborn on December 18, 2009, due to a cord accident at 34 weeks gestation.  Jessica writes at Walks With Frost.