January had five Sundays thus five photos for WordPress bloggers and Internet browsers to “like” or send comments to help select my first Photo of the Month. I will continue to post a POW and the POM thoughout 2012, culminating with everyone’s pick for Photo of the Year. I encourage everyone to comment on or rate each photo of the week to ultimately decide my “Best of the Best.”

The January “high five” goes to 2/52 Gwynn’s Island.

5/52 Freeze-Dried Mystery and 4/52 USS Flagship Hotel tied for second. (I think everyone liked the Flagship post for its sad story rather than my photo.)

And 3/52 Hibiscus beat 1/52 Snake! with a stick!

Photo of the Week series: Every Sunday in 2012 I will either share a photo from my archives or something new i just can’t wait to get feedback on for future art shows/exhibits.

The USS Flagship Hotel in Galveston, Texas, was structurally damaged beyond repair by Hurricane Ike in 2008. I’m glad I got to visit the seawall in 2010 before they demolished this one of a kind landmark in 2011. So sorry, Galveston, for your loss!

My photo pales in comparison to those by professionals on the Web.  The following links will give you a better look and background on the significance of this lost treasure.

enotes

wikipedia

The following YouTube video is a must see. I haven’t learned enough sign language to understand what the woman in the video is saying. But the picture she paints with her hands speaks louder than words! After watching this one, check out the video she posted on the Hooters that was lost at sea! Both documentaries of Ike’s wrath in the Gulf of Mexico are so dramatic, traumatic!

Blogger participation: My hope is to receive enough input on each week’s photo to later post a Bloggers’ Choice of the Month and wrap up 2012 with a Bloggers’ Choice of the Year.

Click for Listing

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“the intent of this blog is to incrementally build a body of thought that works toward integrating various topics, yoga, fitness, and the arts – it’s a process…”

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“galveston in the 21st century, in three parts” – original poetry, art, photography

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my first poem of the year, this fifth month, of our last year in galveston

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Galveston in the 21st Century, in Three Parts

my first trip to galveston

from my first trip from houston with my parents and younger brother, creeping down hwy 3 past hamlets now grown into hustling cities sprawling mid-way back to houston -

up broadway’s final slope to gain the high ground of the seawall

my four year old eyes first saw the now gone mile-long stretches of clean beach

i saw the relentless calling-waves of the gulf, the breeze immediate

i was imprinted with remembrance

i was awakened to my desires

i returned, year to year,

and only just knew

i now carried it

inside me

always

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our last stay in galveston

cranes and pelicans

hawks and sea gulls

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they see the island, residents

have forgotten

yet

is always here

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storm-rebuilds abound

seawall enhancements

new sand, new rock groins groaning

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shells re-gutted to rebuild the past -

the flagship hotel 

hosting families lovers kids and strangers since

i first came here half a century ago

a shell since last hurricane…no

rebuilding the stucco walls

with mermaids

this time

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‘stead

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a memory-remnant, from before the seawall, ferris

wheels – fun across the water when casual was

a light full suit, top hats and pants – and

sunscreen

was wire mesh or lace…

back then

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now

drivers crawl for parking spaces by the sea as

specks of pelicans v-line the sky

searching streaking lines of food swimming

below

the moving lapping surface

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the water’s waves rise and fall in chops as sea gulls

swish and sway and stay aloft

currents of air and water change bathing

babies babes and better halves behaving

cautiously, the foreign feel of movement,

salted air, all around their swim-

trunked bodies -

caressing skin unexpectedly, un-shyly…

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hawks hold back, riding the sandbar’s salty seagrass edge for tiny prey

praying the last lands of food aren’t once again swallowed

by a searching sea

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everyone remembers this is

borrowed land

the sands shifting seamlessly south

the beach huts and houses rising falling with

relentless winds of timeless changing

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the pelicans know, were

here before the coast cracked to create

the sandbar Lafitte found so

appealing

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the cranes say they’ll return and see

what’s left

next winter, other

places to go things to see

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the people know too

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the sea calls, but the sea takes

back

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to live in galveston is to

visit

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we’re “remembered” by the wind we are

we are but visitors

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even back, on houston’s higher drier ground

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so we breathe, we breathe

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the sea breeze-trails sink memories

from the air

into

every cell

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we are aloft too

that way…

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goodbye galveston

i’ve cupped your stars so seldom seen in houston

i’ve rinsed my hair in salt spray licked by waves of green

i’ve seen a thousand sunsets across the bay

as gorgeous as the carribean

i’ve heard your whispers along the rocks stretching fingers

of stone walkways from the beach

and i’ve heard your warnings that only change changes -

hurricanes return, the sunrise rises, the sea birds fish the day

and lovers sense softness beneath their feet, each night, along the crawling shoreline

their breath is the same breath they breathe in from the darkened night

their hearts beat with tides tied to moons and moods and amore

none of this will i miss – it rests, knowing, within me

reminding me, feeding me

i carry you

always, all ways, all the way

back home…

© felipe adan lerma, 2011

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views of galveston

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The Sea, Original Oil Painting by Adan Lerma

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Sheila on Seawall Feeding Sea Gulls, Original Photography by Adan Lerma

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Flowers on Terrace, Galveston by the Bay - Original Photography by Adan Lerma

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Wine Glass on Terrace at Sunset - Original Photography by Adan Lerma

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poetry series

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INTEGRATING YOGA FITNESS AND THE ARTS

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