Seeing Distance -- geometry in photography

One of my favorite poem-stanza styles is a syllable-square -- it distributes the weights of the words in a way that pleases me. The poem below has squares of several sizes and I post it as a prior-to-seeing-the-exhibit opposite to my response to photography currently displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum -- "Pilgrimage," by Annie Leibovitz. While many photographs, my own in particular, seem particularly flat, such was not the case with these. As if I were wearing special lenses, I was able to see and feel depth – not only in a view of Niagara Falls but also in the fabric and buttons of a dress that had belonged to Emily Dickinson.

   Geometry of memory     by JoAnne Growney

   Your photo, pressed
   in my wallet--
   flat and lifeless 
   dots on paper,

   imprisoned
   shadows. I
   disagree

   with the
   view that

   photos frame
   memories.
   Squeeze my hand.