About our theme. . .

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Seneca has said, "Time rolls swiftly ahead, and rolls us with it." How true this is! As we grow older, it seems as though we blink and a decade goes by. That's why it is so important to make the most of each moment we have, and to treasure the beautiful memories we have.

A Special Poem for You. . .
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SONG OF PAPER MIRRORS

Old photographs have a language of their own.
Children of our longing, they whisper:
"Here are the old days- taste and touch and look.
Hold what was before, and smile! 
Watch your self grow and change in the disguise of the decades.
Costumed for the camera, caught in paper mirrors."

And sitting alone in cardboard binders, wrapped in cellophane,
old photographs acquire that particular shade and tone which is theirs alone.
Waiting to be opened, touched,
to feel the breath of our sighs and to see our smiles of remembrance,
they sing the songs old photographs know:
"Open me! Touch me! 
Smell my particular smell, musty and familiar-"

And having sung, old photographs speak of beautiful dreams.

And so, we take them out once in a while to hear them sing, 
to let their songs fall upon the ear like distant rain,
their language- ours,
their words- ours too.

And once again we take them out and dust them off,
to peer just once more, to smile at ourselves-
Our loves...
Our lives...

-Michael D. Purvis © 2001

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