.
Ashley Bennett, son of the photographer Henry Hamilton Bennett (1843-1908), leaping across Stand Rock, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, to demonstrate his father's advanced shutter technique: photo by Henry Hamilton Bennett, 1886 (Wisconsin Historical Society)
The leap of faith looks planless to a witness,
as much an accident as elation
always seems. Or is. But without the energy
of the chilly hours and minutes of uncertainty
of youth to supply an updraft it's
almost not possible to catch the wind.
And when sundown pales the sky
the boy caught in mid air jumping between two
rock formations fills a moment of time that's
elsewise lost in the swift race from gate to gate,
which moves at the shutter speed of life.
as much an accident as elation
always seems. Or is. But without the energy
of the chilly hours and minutes of uncertainty
of youth to supply an updraft it's
almost not possible to catch the wind.
And when sundown pales the sky
the boy caught in mid air jumping between two
rock formations fills a moment of time that's
elsewise lost in the swift race from gate to gate,
which moves at the shutter speed of life.
Stand Rock, Wisconsin Dells: photo by dccradio, 9 May 2010