who will stay.

OUT OF PRINT: Fine Condition

text by ray meeks / facsimile letter by robert gates

who will stay is the third book and final chapter in a series of narratives
which attempt to reconcile loss while tracing back to celebrate a family life
graced by unmistakable beauty.

“we had a remarkable sunrise,
a “bluebird morning” common to late
summer, as light cuts and bends
through canyons-a shadow line
retracts across the valley drawing
towards the sapphire mountains to
the east. it is a dream and a forgetting.
a dozen or so friends and fellow
churchgoers gather near the
bank of the bitterroot river to witness.
you lay back into the arms of the
pastor and disappear under the current and
I wonder if others are recalling the
young Bryson girl who drowned a year previous
near this bend in the river.
if a river can at once flow in two directions-
perhaps this might offer some explanation
for where you were standing, a gentle cross-current
might have eased your spirit north and mine, south?
you re-surface, bearing an expression I’d
seen just a few times previous, primarily in
snapshot photos of you as a young girl
seated on your fathers lap. it’s an expression
you’ve not offered me and one I’ve not
noticed since.”

Read writings by photo-eye staff for who will stay:
Melanie's Picks on photo-eye Blog
Daniel Espeset's blurb for photo-eye's weekly newsletter.

Raymond Meeks is represented by photo-eye Gallery. See his work here.