goodbye 2007

(this is new text added 1.8.08, for the january self-portrait challenge)

i'd been waiting for the right light/snow/temperature/mood to shoot myself in this red dress, left over from high school prom days. i thought not only the vibrant color but the flouncy, festive mood of it would be an interesting contrast against the stark white landscape. on the afternoon of new year's eve the world here was coated in fresh, clean snow, and the sun was darting in and out from behind restless clouds. i had just read the second postmortem post from theresa dunkin on what was, and probably always will be, one of my favorite blogs. this was a cyber-event i'd been both anxiously awaiting and dreading at once. it put me in a very reflective mood, feeling lucky to be alive and standing at the threshold of a new year. what will happen in 2008? we won't know until january 1, 2009, when all will lay unfolded and revealed before us. who could have expected the things that happened in 2007? the mexican day of the dead skull seemed an appropriate prop for both it's color and it's theme. red/white. old/new. death/life.

(below is the text of my original new year's eve post)

there's plenty in the world that doth not die,
and much that lives to perish,
that rises and then falls, buds but to wither;
the season's sun, though he should know his setting
up to the second of the dark coming,
death sights and sees with great misgiving
a rib of cancer on the fluid sky.

but we, shut in the houses of the brain,
brood on each hothouse plant
spewing its sapless leaves around,
and watch the hand of time unceasingly
ticking the world away.
shut in the madhouse call for cool air to breathe.

there's plenty that doth die;
time cannot heal nor resurrect;
and yet, mad with young blood or stained with age,
we still are loth to part with what remains,
feeling the wind about our heads that does not cool,
and on our lips the dry mouth of the the rain.

— dylan thomas

today is the second posthumous blog entry at wit of the staircase.