This is a series that I created in Southern Michigan a few months ago. As you may already know, I grew up there and because of this I will always feel a special connection to the landscape and the people who reside there. Here is an excerpt from a poem by David Citino called “In Praise Of The Middle Way”. I believe it accompanies the photos nicely.
In this grand sandwich we are the meat.
Here between left, hardest right,
sweat of get and gone, yea and nay,
too high, too low we broker, stake a claim.
Between the hips, thighs, lips ears
we mediums of sacred hearth are seers.
We temper, we anneal, cross-pollinate
the very thick of things. Who busts
the sod like us? Who lays down tracks, roads?
This country’s middle ear is her balance.
In middle earth we burrow, hunker, root,
and here we take our stand. Look for us
in pit and pith. We mean the mean. Our sense
is place, our privacy. Here we thrive.
In rarefied mid-air, we take pride.
David Citino
2005
Here between left, hardest right,
sweat of get and gone, yea and nay,
too high, too low we broker, stake a claim.
Between the hips, thighs, lips ears
we mediums of sacred hearth are seers.
We temper, we anneal, cross-pollinate
the very thick of things. Who busts
the sod like us? Who lays down tracks, roads?
This country’s middle ear is her balance.
In middle earth we burrow, hunker, root,
and here we take our stand. Look for us
in pit and pith. We mean the mean. Our sense
is place, our privacy. Here we thrive.
In rarefied mid-air, we take pride.
David Citino
2005
