The Invitation!

Sonnet XVII.

Who will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were fill'd with your most high deserts?
Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life and shows not half your
parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say, 'This poet lies;
Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly
faces.'
So should my papers, yellow'd with their age,
Be scorn'd, like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be term'd a poet's rage
And stretched metre of an antique song:
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice,—in it and in my rime.

W.S.
~~~~~~~~~~

I know it's a little early for Valentine's Day, and certainly not necessarily appropriate for Ground Hog's Day, but I came across these photos of a not too distant trip to a different Starbucks, and what the hey-beauty, grace, and charm is made for every day!

I was meeting Mikal Grass for a cup of coffee and we decided to go to the Aventura Starbucks which is about half way between where he lives in Broward County and my house in North Miami. As we sat there with our Leicas and coffee, looking through a bunch of recent photograhs of Mikal's, this attractive blonde woman at the adjoining table interjected "Those are Leicas, aren't they?" We got into a conversation, discovered that she was an avid photographer herself, and had come from Russia. It was an interesting half hour or so, talking cameras and the direction of B&W photography in a rapidly changing world. I didn't catch her name and assumed I'd never see her again anyway. I did give her my email and the link to my portfolio on photonet. While we chatted I shot a few exposures with my ever present 15mm equipped Bessa.

A few weeks later I was sitting, drinking coffee at the North Miami Starbucks near my house, when a young man with longish hair that I see there all the time stopped at my table and said that I must be the photographer that his sister had met up in Aventura. We chatted a bit and he introduced me to his girlfriend. I run into him maybe once a week and he always assures me that yes, his sister does visit that Starbucks also. We just never manage to get the timing right. A few days ago he said that he and his girlfriend were leaving town, moving north. He again said that his sister still goes there on occasion and that I was bound to run into her. I'm looking forward to it!