The Steel Mass

Image Description: A large steam engine pulling a train painted in yellow Union Pacific colors. There is an American flag on one train car and on a backup diesel locomotive. It is traveling across a grassy field under a clear blue sky.

Ever Onward, Ever Forward

Image Description: A large steam engine pulling Union Pacific train cars. There is an American flag on one train car and on a backup diesel locomotive. It is traveling across a grassy field under a clear sky.

Untitled 08

Image Description: A black and white photograph of a mountain valley. The botton of the valley is filled with grasses and shrugs with a road and stream running through it. The valley walls are covered in trees. In the distance are snow-covered mountain peaks with white clouds overhead.

What If We Were Kind?

Image Description: A black and white landscape photograph of a valley. A road travels from the bottom left edge through the valley, disappearing around a corner in the center. A winding stream travels alongside the road through the valley. It is sunny with whispy white clouds in the sky. The sky itself is very blue. The bottom of the valley is filled with green grasses, and the sides covered in evergreen trees. In the distance are rocky mountains with snow across their flanks.

A Brief Window of Time

Image Description: A landscape photograph of a valley. A road travels from the bottom left edge through the valley, disappearing around a corner in the center. A winding stream travels alongside the road through the valley. It is sunny with whispy white clouds in the sky. The sky itself is very blue. The bottom of the valley is filled with green grasses, and the sides covered in evergreen trees. In the distance are rocky mountains with snow across their flanks.

Yearnings of Cooler Times

Image Description: A landscape photograph of a valley. A road travels down the center. It is sunny with whispy white clouds in the sky. The sky itself is very blue. The bottom of the valley is filled with green grasses, and the sides covered in evergreen trees. In the distance are rocky mountains with snow across their flanks.

Upon Their Crushed Spines, America

Image Description: A black and white photograph of a large steam locomotive travelling through a ravine. Behind it is another steam engine. On the front of the engine, "Big Boy" is chalked on the locomotive, and the numbner "X4014" is visible at the top. Photographers are visible on the left, on the edge of the ravine.

Sometimes You Have to Climb

Image Description: A photograph of a freight train rounding a corner in a canyon. The train is moving toward the camera. There are two locomotives, and the cars trail around the corner and out of view behind the locomotives. To the locomotive's left is a large rocky wall. Behind it, in the background, a highway is visible. Sheer rock walls rise above that. There are grass and trees covering it. A river is visible in the bottom of the frame stretching around and behind the canyon. A sliver of blue sky with white clouds is visible.

Growing in the Between Places

Image Description: A close-up photograph of black tree bark. It has a heavily cranulated texture. Bright yellow lichen covers the tree bark in streaks and spots across the entire image.

The Light Overcame Us

Image Description: A picture of a landscape at night. The land takes up the bottom third of the photograph. Patchy snow covers the land as it stretches to the snow-covered mountains in the distance. A sign is visible, but not legible, near the right edge. The sky has a few clouds, and hundreds of visible stars. Galactic clouds are somewhat visible. On the left side, on the horizon, the sky glow of a distant town is visible.

God's in His Heaven, All's Right With the World

Image Description: A picture of a night landscape. The bottom quarter of the photograph shows dark, snow-capped mountains. A frozen lake is also vizible, stretching from the bottom left to three-quarters of the way to the right edge. A few building lights are visible at the foot of the mountains in the bottom right. A star-filled sky fills the top three-quarters of the photograph, with several galactic clouds faintly visible. A few clouds are visible in the bottom left of the sky.

Have You Forgiven Yourself Yet?

Image Description: A skinny person is standing in the middle of a snow-covered road, facing away from the camera. The person is wearing an orange jacket, blue jeans, and a white hat. Their arms are in the jacket's pockets. The road stretches out of sight and around a corner. It is lined on both sides by evergreen trees. The sky is perfectly blue.

Bring Me to the Edge of My World, For I Won't Grow Otherwise

Image Description: A photograph of a frozen lake situated in a valley. In the background, green evergreens are visible. Behind those, stretching into a blue sky, are a snow-covered mountain range. The tops of the mountains are bare rock. One mountain on the left has a distinctly triangular shape.

We Wanted to Say Something Profound, But Were Left With Bromides

Image Description: A photograph of a night sky. At the bottom, the silhuoettes of trees are visible. Behind them, part of the galaxy is visible. Hundreds of stars dot the sky. Behind the trees, though, the white haze of a city's light pollution clouds part of the picture.

Positivity Culture Is A Sham

Full Poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/positivity-culture-is-a-sham-6eeedc61bcd1 Image Description: A black and white photo of a desert-like landscape. The curve of a road can be seen from the far bottom left of the photo to near the bottom right, with another curve going up the middle and disappearing around a rocky ridge. This rock ridge extends from the left side of the photograph to the middle, tapering off. Beyond that in the distance is another rock ridge, extending from the center off to the right of the frame. Beyond that is a flat landscape where a town is visible several miles away. The horizon line is a landscape of mountains with sheer rock cliffs. The shadows of clouds cover these mountains. The sky is filled with dramatic, fluffy clouds that extend to the horizon, with clear sky visible at the very top of the photo.

Cool Story, Bro

Full Poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/cool-story-bro-840bb3690a31 Image Description: A photograph of two bighorn sheep. One is in the foreground, staring at the camera. He has two small horns and a white snout. The other is behind him, staring off camera to the right. There are green bushes in the background.

When We Smiled, It Was On Stolen Land

Image Description: A photo of a wide panoramic landscape. In the distance are tall mesas and structures made of red and orange rock . In the far distance on the right, the Rocky Mountains are visible. Shrubs and trees dot the mesas, along with the canyons below them. The sky is bright blue and full of fluffy clouds. One cloud on the left is visibly raining.

When We Smiled, It Was On Stolen Land (BW)

Image Description: A black and white photo of a wide panoramic landscape. In the distance are tall rocky mesas and structures. In the far distance on the right, the Rocky Mountains are visible. Shrubs and trees dot the mesas, along with the canyons below them. The sky is full of fluffy clouds. One cloud on the left is visibly raining.

Instagram Loves A Square

Image Description: A large red structure fills the entire frame. In the center is a cone, but from this angle it appears to just be a circle. It is surrounded by 10 blades in a fan formation. They stretch to all edges of the frame. It is a railroad rotary snowplow.

America, Our History is Exceptionalism

Full Poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/america-our-history-is-exceptionalism-551d2c0a359c Image Description: A close-up of the side of a cattle railroad car. The wood is painted red, but faded almost to pink. It is chipped in many places. There is a small metal pipe from the bottom center to top-right corner. Near the top is a gap in the wood, through which darkness and a blurry bit of light is visible. "KEEP OFF" is stenciled in white lettering on the car.

A Name of Life and Fire

Full Poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/a-name-of-life-and-fire-d26f3d00bb9a Image Description: A small stone chapel is in the foreground. It has stained glass windows, and a steeple with a cross at the top. The walls are made of stones of varying sizes. In the far bottom left, a staircase goes up and around the back. It sits on a rock. In the bottom right, green bushes are visible. The sky is a vivid blue, with orangish white clouds throughout. They are stretched across the sky, with a brushstroke-like texture.

Can You See the Sun Kissing the Earth?

Full Poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/can-you-see-the-sun-kissing-the-earth-b25a1ed02a61 Image Description: A landscape photo of a chapel in a mountain clearing. The chapel is in the top-right quarter of the photo. It is old and built of a variety of stones. The glow of the sun can be seen through one window, and a cross adorns a tower on the right. The top-left quarter is taken up by a mountain in the distance. The sky is full of fluffy clouds that are slightly gold-colored because of the sun behind the mountain. There is a lot of greenery and trees occupying the mid-ground to the right foreground. In the left foreground is a pond with a reflection of the sunset and the chapel.

The Hateful Never Smile

Full Poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/the-hateful-never-smile-46b6640a69cb Image Description: A black and white image of a vaulted wood roof. There are intricate butresses made of lighter and darker wood that form criss-crossed latices. There are five of them total, with the one at the top of the image being almost directly overhead.

Thunder Rolls and Trails Black Clouds

Image Description: A close-up image of a very large steam locomotive. The main drive wheels and a large silver coupling rod is the primary subject of the photo. At the bottom, a rail is visible. A leaf spring is visible behind the wheel in the center.

Breathe, Work, Thrust

Poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/breathe-work-thrust-6c88d6d6d47a Image Description: A close-up of a large steam engine locomotive piston. The piston and its connecting pipes are black steel with streaks of blue on them. There are bolts connecting various plates and endcaps. To the lower right, extending off-picture, is a silver steel component that drives the wheels. One of the wheels is partially visible. A leaf spring is visible behind the wheels.

Alphabet Soup

For full poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/alphabet-soup-7f36e99d698e Image Description: A line of land is visible at the very bottom of the image. The foreground in the left half of photo is dominated by a stylized wind turbine. It appears as a large slender tower with a full circle of turbine blades around the top, forming a nearly complete circle. Fourteen identical wind turbines dot the horizon in the distance behind it, interspersed along the land at the bottom of the photograph. Just to the right of the main turbine are a pair of small birds. The entire foreground is silhouetted. The sky is filled with purple storm clouds that fade to reddish-orange at the horizon. The clouds are blurred with motion across the sky.

Stranger at the Fence

Full Poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/stranger-at-the-fence-983a43701634 Image Description: A black and white portrait of a highland cow, with the head slightly to the left of the center of the photo. It has two curved horns, and one has tufts of hair at the end of it. The cow is covered in shaggy fur and is looking directly at the camera. There is a tag near its right ear, where the number 26 is visible. The background is blurry grass.

Psalms

For full poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/psalms-597bb46c073a Image description: Image Description: Black and white photo of a snowy field. On the left are a few evergreen trees. A mountain rises from the other end of the field to the right of the photo, out of sight. It is also covered in evergreens. A trail can be seen through the snow towards three people walking away from the camera in the distance. The sky is grey and featureless.

Heal Thyself

Full Poem: https://medium.com/@wdibble/heal-thyself-d34ba93e154d Image Description: The image is of a frozen lake from above. The top half of the photo is taken up by evergreen trees. The tops of evergreen trees ring the bottom of the photo. In the middle of the photo, which forms the bottom half of a circle, a hiker can be seen walking out of view toward the right.

Faint, Whispered, Sparkling, Filtered

For poem, go here: https://medium.com/@wdibble/faint-whispered-sparkling-filtered-e8f7187477a5 Image Description: A close-up shot of a railroad switching mechanism. it is made of thick, grey-painted steel, but rusting. It takes up the entire center and right parts of the photograph. Behind it, more yellow and grey components can be seen out of focus. They are rusting as well. A few tree branches can be seen in the left edge. The entire photo has a slight out-of-focus cloudy look.

The World Moved On

Image Description: A railroad switch signal is in the foreground. It is old, rusted, and all the lights are broken. In the background, along the bottom third of the photo, are rocky mountains with evergreen trees on them. The top two thirds of the background is taken up by a sky with white clouds in it.

But I've Got Unlimited Data

Full Poem Here: https://medium.com/@wdibble/but-ive-got-unlimited-data-bcf8ec01cd3 Image Description: The picture is low to the ground. Train tracks stretch from the bottom to a third of the way up the photo. Yellow bushes line both sides of the tracks. The tracks are rusty and old. A mountain rises from the horizon line to two-thirds of the top of the photo. Evergreen trees dot the landscape and mountain. The sky is bright blue with whispy clouds.

This Moment Burns Us Alive

For full poem and image description: https://medium.com/@wdibble/this-moment-burns-us-alive-7fc1ce08f9d0

Need to Live, No Solution

Poem at link: https://medium.com/@wdibble/need-to-live-no-solution-7cec04cba43a

The Valley

It's my first day on the new job I used to teach. Today I'm doing class photos. Little girls, daughters of the parent volunteers, run in circles around my feet. I'm smiling but it's a facade. Yesterday, seventeen people needlessly had their lives uprooted and destroyed. Today people are telling me it's rude to demand gun control and infringe their rights Fucking rude. Today people are telling me it's they're classmates faults for not knowing of the coming hell. There are too many poems about people being shot but we stand here again. Every year the reaper thanks the NRA for padding their wallet. The reaper gets paid a commission of death. They care not that some of the victims haven't known love or niceness, haven't gotten to see their graduation day or get their first job. The politicians got their wages in private jets and personal gifts. They only pay out in meaningless thoughts and prayers while taking payment from the NRA. We fund death and ignorance instead of saving lives. Every school shooting is our reward for complacency. How many souls do we owe to the gun manufacturers? How many souls to the right to take lives at eight hundred fifty feet per second? How many souls to this worship of death machines while our future bleeds out in front of it's locker because we can't bring ourselves to confront the cause? I go to work scared that something will happen and a shooter will show up. It doesn't matter if their reason is because this school has a high Latino population or because they're just another angry white man. Because the reaper doesn't care. They get their pay and we get our heartbreak Either way we just lose and lose and lose Don't give me this thoughts and prayers bullshit if you aren't willing to help solve it Image Description: A rocky mountain valley. A railroad crosses a small steel bridge in the bottom left corner. Most of the plants are either evergreens or scrub-type plants. There’s a sliver of a stream or river in the right bottom third. A big rocky mountain comes down to meet a dirt road in the left half of the photo. A blue sky with fluffy clouds takes up the top third.

Zippers Stretched From One End of the Valley to the Other

That Old Specter

You are in pain, Let me help you I’ve known you a short time I feel like I’ve known you since mammoths walked I feel like your pain is my pain and the only way to relieve it Is to grieve and hurt with you You, my lover, my friend, stranger on the street who let me into your soul Let me help you shoulder that pain Nobody can cure the holes in our souls, fill them in with dirt, right away But together, we can start. And they might still look like fresh graves in a month or in a decade But we all deserve help stamping down that dirt, or putting flowers on it Whatever grieving and help look like, we all deserve love We all deserve that light Grieve. Let the feelings happen. It is okay. Find someone who loves you. Let them comfort you. If you feel like doing so is a burden, let me tell you, one heavy heart to another I know how hard it is to reach out I know that the shadow of depression leeches out your soul It’ll tell you that you are dragging them down It’ll help you put your hand down, it’ll breathe your voice for you, it’ll move your mouth And it’ll say, for you, “I am fine” You and I know otherwise. We aren’t okay. Fine is a liar. That old shadow hangs around every word, telling you lies Your friends don’t care You’re alone You don’t deserve help. It’s a liar. It’s a specter convincing you that you don’t deserve niceness. You do. You deserve someone sitting next to you Standing next to you Messaging you “You are not alone” You deserve someone who listens Who cares Who is willing to help you shoulder your pain That old specter will always be with us, taunting us Haunting us Let’s try to keep them at bay, to help each other weather their assaults Because you deserve that. You deserve someone who helps you take a break. You deserve help, and you deserve happiness. Image Description: A wide valley with snow-capped mountains from one edge of the frame to the other. The top half of the picture is a blue sky with fluffy clouds. The bottom third is a snow-covered frozen lake. There are pine trees along the center of the photo, coming in from both edges and stretching toward the mountains. A lone snowman is near the center of the frame.

Sometimes We Have to Get Close

The Cacophony Assaulted Our Senses

Image description: Black and white photograph. A very reflective building with an all-glass exterior rises on the left. A concrete building with tall, vertical black windows rises parallel to that on the right. In between the two is a building made up of rows of windows and concrete. A few street lights and other buildings are visible at the bottom of the photo.

Commercial Goods for Commercial Gods

Image Description: Black and white photo of a city street. the sky has mild clouds, and there are cars stopped at a traffic light, facing away. Tall buildings rise on both sides, reflecting each other in the windows. The road is centered, and goes up and over a hill, out of sight.

The Gods Never Went Away, They Became New Idols

Partial Reflections Are Still Part of a Whole

Image Description: A black and white photo of a building corner, looking upward at it. The windows are all black, and there is a shadow across part of it.

She Spread Her Wings to Dry, Preparing to Roost for the Night

The Corn Wasn't Cradled, But We Went Through the Motions All the Same

They Painted With Only the Best Seeds

The Gods Decided to Show Us Beauty

Happiness is the Road