Letters from the alleyway

Posted on by Katharine Asals

20140425-180623.jpgLately has been a patch of such intensity, so much pressure in every direction, that each glimmer of tenderness, of humanity, of a hand reaching out in the chaos has felt like a branch that must be held onto tightly in hopes of slowing the relentless slide down a slope.

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That dream the other night of a house where everything you touch turns into something else – you pick up the umbrella, it turns into an eel, you grab the doorhandle, it turns into a salamander.
A house of so many tricks and false faces and turns and complications, and in the dream I am trying and trying to leave, to take my son and go live with a man I’ve met by the seaside, a fisherman, to go and live a simple life, the three of us, if I can just escape this house….
But –
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But I can’t leave.
I can’t extract myself.
Yet.
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A couple of nights before that it had been a childhood home, passing through the kitchen and my mother making dinner and instructing me on how I should go out and do all the right things to get this man, to hook this rich guy already and get myself taken care of, fer chrissakes.
He is waiting for me outside, this guy. A producer I know – bit of a hot shot.
He is just up the street, and is impatient there in his fancy car, a sports convertible – he wants me to hurry up and get in the car.20140425-180350.jpg
I am annoyed at being hurried.
All I want to do is play in the mud…
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Weekly Photo Challenge – Letters

Published by Katharine Asals

Katharine is a single mom who likes taking pictures and painting and writing sometimes and believes swimming is the one true religion.

141 thoughts on “Letters from the alleyway”

    1. Oh, I’m glad you could see the Beware of Dog sign, and yes, I loved the misspell on Loney, and kind of thought the dangerous dog might contribute to loneyness…but whatever 🙂

  7. Hi Katalina,
    Nice pictures. “You can’t leave”. I really can’t. Thanks for sharing this.
    Also, you have a cool blog title. Nose knows. Awesome.

      1. I don’t know why, but what came into my head reading this was the Jimmy Durante song from “The man who came to dinner”:
        “It’s tough to have the feeling that you wanted to go,
        Still have the feeling that you wanted to stay.
        Start to go.
        Change your mind.
        Start to go again but change your mind again.
        It’s tough to have the feeling that you wanted to go,
        Still have the feeling that you wanted to stay.
        Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, si, do.
        I go.
        I’ll stay.”

        Probably because I feel like that sometimes where I want to go, but can’t or I am not sure what I want. Ahh feelings… why must you be so dastardly 🙂

        1. Wow, I had to look up that reference to check it out – the gravelly voice and the simple piano… it did convey a bit of the confused claustrophobia of the dream, but with a more boisterous bluster…
          Thanks for the comment!

          1. No problems, it’s a very old reference which is why I wrote the lyrics out. I heard it on an old movie a while ago and it stuck with me. I think about that song when I get stuck like that and even though it doesn’t help me with a decision, it does make me smile 🙂

    1. Mmmmmm, thank you so much, Karen.
      So many years of working in film & TV, I feel – the impulse to make the images and words work together is deeply engrained…. 🙂

    1. You are too kind, Callum.
      Just ran into this quote, and it seemed to speak to your comment –
      “The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul, which opens into that primeval cosmic night that was soul long before there was a conscious ego and will be soul far beyond what a conscious ego could ever reach.”
      – C.G. Jung

    1. Indeed – 2 dreams, in fact. One a bit of a nightmare trying to escape a house, the other a bit of childhood memories and current scenarios mixed together…

    1. The key is a dream diary, I find. For years I’ve kept one by my bed, and I write down everything I remember in the morning, or even sometimes in the middle of the night. You build the dream-remembering habit or something.

  23. Interesting… And makes one think about how dreams are a shadow of reality… Everyone is in a hurry for luxury, but when it comes to really enjoy something, everyone goes for the simple ones…

    Thank by the way, it was kind of nostalgic and I’ve now got something to write about… 🙂

    -ISpontein

    1. When I was a kid I loved to make mud pies… Now I still prefer mud between my toes and paint between my fingers to pretending I’m something that I’m not.
      But that’s just me 🙂

    1. You know, I found Melatonin made me feel very groggy and heavy, but didn’t actually provide any more hours of sleep than say, a hot bath or a glass of wine.
      Also, I have all kinds of dream-paraphernalia around… 🙂

  26. Great post! I felt the depth and the emotion of ever word and the photos were incredible and truly added something incredible to the whole piece. Awesome 🙂

  34. I really like the name of your blog. Most great things in life can be found by following your nose. I was once advised by my 12 year old brother after moving into a new house that in order to find the shops I should just ‘follow my nose.’ I did, and I found them, as well as an excellent bookshop.

    1. Wow! Coming from “the moon is a naked banana” I am truly flattered… 🙂
      Yes, following the nose or following dreams I find to be pretty reliable, though occasionally, like a curious cat, I get into trouble….

  35. Stupendous. I loved it the first time I went through the photos of words then pictured your words as the dreams were unraveling… Une merveille.

  40. Dreams do give us the solutions to our problems, as they represent the way we would behave if the situation is thrown up in front. Amazing post along with stunning pictures.

    1. They really help us see things we have trouble facing directly in waking life – I love their cryptic language too…
      Thanks Roopesh 🙂

  54. I have very vivid dreams. I need to start writing them down to explore my history.

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