Thomas Somerset (1967)

My loving sister died from ALS January 29, 2010. She is my hero forever.

James Usher (1965)

We met at age 12 years.

My first date and first dance with her at age 15.

My first love never forgotten.

Her color was pink

but she looked good in blue.

She had a huge influence on me

and I love her, in memory, deeply still.

"Photos are precious memories...the visual evidence of place and time...Ritual talismans for the treasure chest of the heart." 

The Rarest Bloom

"Pink Roses"

A certain song, in a famous musical

begins with the lyrics:

"I loved you once in silence

And misery was all I knew".

It brings a mist to my eyes about a Lady

who urges me to let her go,

leave her with another's thoughts and memories.

I cannot speak with reason now that she is gone

when one of her own kin has denied her

and left her alone.

What is the virtue or the power

that drives me to remember a love

that never lived, but fell down faster

than a dragon's tears mixed with raindrops?

In a far away corner where black feathers and

ashes collect and love dares not to come again,

I see those pink roses crumbling to dust.

So let me know

why they cannot grow

when dreams once more demand they must.

James