At the Scrap Exchange in Durham, North Carolina, I found several empty boxes that had once held photographic slides from the 1960s, presumably of vacations to the western United States.
Although the slides were missing, the labels were intact, neatly typed on specially sized index cards.
Because of the narrow confines of the cards, the titles of the slides were brief. Each succinct line contains an innate meter, as well as a random yet inevitable juxtaposition of poetic phrases.
I distilled some of the 100-some titles into four assemblages, each based on a respective index card.
The index cards, with their full text, are pictured on this page.
1. Long View
Mormon temple
evening shadows
Flowers
on dinosaur grazing land
Nation’s icebox
Nearby picnic
Ladies and gents
fasten seat belts
We are on our way to the moon
2. Ditto
The chipmunks and
the gray jay
Animal lovers
Three tall timbers
flat flat country
Ditto
Lawrence, Kansas
more of the same
3. Great White Throne
Foggy morning getting down
close to the Colorado
River
Lunch time with Tom
At Bright Angel
Gorgeous
mountain scenery
with patches
of aspen
Silent City
Court of Patriarch
Great White Throne
4. Yosemite Falls in a.m.
Canyon and sunlit
Twin giants
Facade and shadows
General Grant
Twice across the plateau
toward
deep
eerie
wild
rugged
awe-
inspiring
Forest primeval
and its people