{"id":740,"date":"2012-01-31T22:32:37","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T06:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/diaryofawrinkle.com\/?p=740"},"modified":"2015-03-25T18:33:38","modified_gmt":"2015-03-26T01:33:38","slug":"the-photograph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofawrinkle.com\/?p=740","title":{"rendered":"The Photograph"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"scan0018\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gertrude in her 20s.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When my grandmother Gertrude wrote her poems she did not\u00a0think\u00a0that they were anything special. She\u00a0casually shoved the poems in the drawer, beneath her favorite\u00a0bookshelf, and forgot about them. She had no idea that\u00a0years later I would read\u00a0those poems, and possibly find a measure of comfort in her words. “The Photograph”\u00a0was written after a photo shoot that was conducted by one of my cousins.\u00a0 Apparently, granny did not like the results, nothing to do with the quality of the photos because Nicola’s work was remarkable—it was something else that bothered Gertrude. I don’t know whether to call it vanity or not, but\u00a0it was obvious that she was unhappy with the way that she had aged. Gertrude had always told me that in her mind she had a totally different image of herself, that she had only seen herself as that nineteen-year-old that she used to be. With her eyes closed she never imagined one wrinkle, or an age spot; in her mind she still\u00a0had raven black hair, smooth skin, and a\u00a0long narrow frame. When she looked in the mirror she could no longer recognize herself. Nevertheless,\u00a0 one day she rediscovered those photos, and had a complete change of heart.<\/p>\n

“The Photograph”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is that me? It cannot be<\/p>\n

Small eyes,thin lips,long nose<\/p>\n

When I have only seen myself<\/p>\n

As I was long ago<\/p>\n

In the depths of dark I stand<\/p>\n

Light focused where the need<\/p>\n

Background translucent screen<\/p>\n

With black design on white<\/p>\n

In front of me the lens with her behind<\/p>\n

She orders: Open your eyes wide<\/p>\n

Look deep into the lens, what do you see?<\/p>\n

An endless tunnel I am lost in space and time<\/p>\n

And the core of my being is caught<\/p>\n

In one single flash<\/p>\n

In those few hours together<\/p>\n

My granddaughter and I communed<\/p>\n

To bring to light a truth<\/p>\n

Which she learned but I had yet to find<\/p>\n

Whilst the camera watched and waited<\/p>\n

and sprang.<\/p>\n

Yes, the image tells what is<\/p>\n

Not that which is past<\/p>\n

Now caught and fixed in time.<\/p>\n

\"Five<\/a><\/p>\n

Gertrude (top center) together with her siblings at her 80th birthday party, London, England.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My novel East End Dreams<\/em> describes Gertrude’s life in grater detail,\u00a0beginning in the East End\u00a0of London in 1910, and later on\u00a0in South Africa. If interested in learning more\u00a0about this book, please click on the following link:<\/p>\n

\u00a0 http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/s\/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=ilana+levinsky<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gertrude in her 20s. When my grandmother Gertrude wrote her poems she did not\u00a0think\u00a0that they were anything special. She\u00a0casually shoved the poems in the drawer, beneath her favorite\u00a0bookshelf, and forgot about them. She had no idea that\u00a0years later I would read\u00a0those poems, and possibly find a measure of comfort in her words. “The Photograph”\u00a0was written … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofawrinkle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofawrinkle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofawrinkle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofawrinkle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofawrinkle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=740"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofawrinkle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1573,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofawrinkle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions\/1573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofawrinkle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofawrinkle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofawrinkle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}