John-Ward Leighton

AZURE, ORINOCO, XANADU

I love the sound
and the feeling of the words
and an old Paul Simon
ringing in my mind’s ears
still crazy after all these years

the words have no meaning
except for the way they make me feel
that evening blue I could never quite capture on film
the mysterious river flowing to the sea
in Venezuela
and a lost city somewhere in Tibet

only in my brain
the words people my dreams
and as strange as it seems
the color, the river, and the dream city
is where my imagination resides
against all the strife and the storm of fate
repelling the barbarians at the gate

it’s been twelve years now
that I let loose my imagination
and with a team I rarely see anymore
let the camera shutters whir
and got the photos
that you see here

nude to the city
frivolous, careless and profane
we won’t pass that way again
like a small boy
in a early morning cookie theft
a ringadamdo
Azure, Orinoco, Xanadu