To Be Where I Have Been

Our Shadows Taller Than Our Soul

I wander through the words of others seeking images and voices – to create connection or to treat on their own or to provide all encompassing descriptions of a particular moment or feeling. Finding voices and images that capture the essence provides for a better walked trail. The first of these images and voices together…the searching of the light and shadow (and especially the in between) from my 2004 journey to the Western front. (Malta a close second…I need to walk that trail again).

The work in 2004 resulted in presentations – the light and shadows of soldiers from both sides of the fence, memorial architecture, fragments of memory, the destruction of and the rebuilding of Ypres’ Cloth Hall and St. Martin’s Cathedral…the corners of this Ypres town. All of these steps continue, albeit there has been no personal return since November 2018. The shadows have indeed grown long and I must find my soul again upon these trails.

This day’s effort has come from searching for phrases by wandering through the voices of singer/songwriters. In doing so today’s words a segue of my findings…a search of what represents my wanderings… I’m a traveler of both time and space…To be where I have been*…and then again to my recognition of the movement of time…Our shadows taller than our soul.**

And that 2004 voice to describe all I had seen on the Western Front…from the much earlier voice of William Shakespeare…Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear. (All’s Well that End’s Well, circa 1598-1608).

*Kashmir, Led Zeppelin (Page, Plant, Bonham, 1975)

**Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin (Page, Plant, 1971)