LOST SOULS

"to become more optimistic about pessimism"

DIVING FIGHTER; photograph Robert Golden with Artgrid

Here we are in the beginning of the third decade of the 21st c.
So far, as a species, we have killed over 3 million people in wars,
and many more in interpersonal crimes and gang warfare.
It is calculated that over 40,000 unarmed Ukrainian citizens
have been killed and up to 100,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers
have been maimed or killed.
How many in the Horn of Africa, in Syria, Yemen, in Iran and, and, and…

Thus far we have slaughtered at least a billion animals for food.
From human activity and thoughtlessness,
half of our planet’s species have become extinct.
So, business as usual for our species.

Are our souls misplaced or lost?
What of Putin Modi, Orban, Erduan, Xi?
But what of Johnson, of Biden?
And what of you and I?
What we can’t find, we can’t find.

LAKE DISTRICT MOUNTAIN LAKE; photograph Robert Golden

Perhaps your soul is okay,
present and accounted for.
Mine is not.
There is a space within me, well, not so much a space as an emptiness.
It’s probably where my soul is supposed to be.

Unlike some, I have never killed another human,
I have neither embezzled, stolen nor to my knowledge cheated others.
I have consistently lived to a moral code
that has curtailed my acquisition of material wealth.

So what? Who cares?
Am I a fool?
Should I have kept quiet, head down and reaped the rewards?
I knew I was not free if what was given by others could be taken away by them.

I sang of innocence and pain
I sang of lust and love
I sang of dreams and loss
And then again, I sang of pain.

Maybe I have become what I should have become,
and yet I ask, what have I lost by living?

A rightful revolt?
Demanding, at least for myself, a rightful change:
Being peaceful, kind and caring for others,
at least with my photographs and films in the face of power and wealth.

And what is power in this neoliberal world of greed and mendacity?
Things change but no one asks,
‘is this ok? Do I understand?’
That is power.

I am only sure that the space,
vacated by my soul, is in pain.

So what? Who cares?

SUNFLOWERS OUT OF THE LIGHT; photograph Robert Golden

I heard the wise and deeply humane Anglo-Turkish writer Elif Shafak say,
“I am trying to learn how to become more optimistic about my pessimism.”

Or put another way, ”I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”
Thomas Jefferson

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A NOTE

TRANSIENT LIGHT, FLEETING TIME, a 112 page photographic book (216 X 216 MM), consisting of 50 short essays and 50 of my photographs from my archive, will be published worldwide on 19 January 2023. It will be available in many bookstores and online at all major shops as Barnes and Nobel, Foyles, Waterstones, and Amazon.