“A Summer Evening in New York”

August 24, 2014 ggnb 1 Comment

A Summer Evening in New York

“Out-side the window,

Is that the sound of crickets?

No, a chirping fan.

At last a siren afar,

And all is normal again.”

If you’ve ever been to New York City, you know how loud it is at night with all the traffic and horns and sirens and people. If you’ve ever lived in New York City, you know how startlingly quiet certain August Saturday nights can be when the city empties out for the weekend. Tonight is such a night.

Good night,

The Gentleman Backpacker

P.S. A tanka is a form of Japanese poetry written in the format of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5, 7, 7.

Postcard from the Road #8: White Rock Canyon, New Mexico

August 22, 2014 ggnb Leave a comment

Dear Friends,

Earlier this summer, I attended a photography workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico, under the tutelage of Brett Erickson. Before I flew back to New York, I drove to Los Alamos County to check out the ruins at Bandelier National Monument. Near the park shuttle bus terminal at the White Rock Visitor Center is the White Rock Overlook Park, from where I took this photo on a partly overcast day. The cliff plunges 1,000 feet to the canyon below. The river you see is the famous Rio Grande, and you can clearly make out an almost perfect mesa in the distance on the lefthand side, as well as the one directly in the middle. If you look really closely at the bare patch on the right bank of the river, right before it curves, there is a little community there of a couple of houses and some trucks. The cactus in the foreground was blooming and this was just a magnificent viewpoint, but one to avoid if you are scared of heights. Hope all is well with you.

White Rock Canyon Overlook, Los Alamos, New Mexico

Sincerely,

The Gentleman Backpacker

Postcard from the Road #7: Steveston, Canada

August 20, 2014 ggnb 2 Comments

Dear Friend,

This postcard may be slow to reach you. I forgot to mail it until near the end of my trip. I was looking south across from Steveston at the mouth of the Lower Arm of the mighty Fraser River. This scene struck me, with the driftwood, the boats passing by, and the purple wildflowers growing by the water’s edge. In the distance, some islands, including Vancouver Island provide a nice silhouette. It was just a beautiful scene that stuck with me.

My friend Melinda Green Harvey was in BC around the same time, and took a magnificent photo of driftwood, if this sort of thing interests you. I promise to continue with posting about Iguazu Falls later this week.

A magical Pacific Northwest summer sunset

All the best,

The Gentleman Backpacker

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