Student Poem:
Photographs
By Autumn Kennedy
A photograph is two degrees
From Eternity, an image of
An image of Reality.
My life is livelier than these,
And yet my images I love
With special sentimentality.
So atrophied is my memory
That a five-by-seven seems to hold
Transcendence apt to fill the soul–
And at its smiling peak of glory
I find it wanting. I have sold
My search for permanence to a roll
Of photo paper. Who has not?
What shall I do with myself so vain
That days are lost to paper squares
Though with a camera Time I fought?
From asking too much of memories, refrain
I must, and see how my anxiety compares.
I cannot pin experiences
To boards like stiffened specimens,
I’ve lived my life. Photography
Will hardly grant more audiences
With the Divine. If I’d examen
My soul, I’d find photography
Is just my heart’s response to God.
Cease striving, little mind; the hall
Of memory will never fall,
For sovereign God remembers all.
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Autumn Kennedy is a rising freshman to New College Franklin from Cincinnati, OH. She loves big ideas, fairy-tales, dance, and driving with the windows down.
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Published on 7th July, 2023.