Venice

           

SMO©2009

Orgosolo Murales, Sardinia

Segovia, Spain

DETAIL

OCT.21.2004 VERONA

Tangier, Morocco

Tangier

shutters are open

curtains are down

arched bodies dusting

 one gram yellow, 

   one gram orange 

sound of ezan

echoes on the walls

squat bodies ,

angled and straight

shelter under  arched

shadows

naked feet, 

leather sandal escape

the  parquet stones 

 one gram yellow ,

   one gram orange 

My name is plaster

walls of an ancient city 

like the ocean

blending into the sea.

I 'm white,

yellow' n orange,

cracked open,

n' thirsty..

SMO2012©

Tangier, Morocco

...Perhaps the logical question to ask at this point is: Why go? The answer is that when a man has been there and undergone the baptism of solitude he can't help himself. Once he has been under the spell of the vast luminous, silent country, no other places is quite strong enough for him, no other surroundings can provide the supremely satisfying sensation of existing in the midst of something that is absolute. He will go back, whatever the cost in time or money, for the absolute has no price." 
Paul Bowles-  Their Heads are Green and Their hands are Blue

Postcard from Carmona...

"life is peachy here...

yours....love .."

Alhambra, Granada,

For in and out, above, about, below,
"This nothing but a Magic Shadow-show,
Play'd in Box whose Candle is the Sun,
Round which we Phantom Figures come and go.

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam *
Translation by Edward Fitzgerald

Cuenca, Spain (4)

Old houses by the gorge

Alhambra, Granada, Spain ( 4 )

View of the wall at the Patio de Lindaraja

Cordoba, Spain

Photo: Selim M. Ozalp ©

Alhambra, Granada

Patio de la Acequia

Photo:Selim M.Ozalp ©

The Balcony , Cordoba

Alhambra, Granada, Spain ( 3 )

Patio de Arrayanes

Granada, Spain

Lorca and Andalusia

El Balcon

Si muero
Dejad el balcón abierto
El niño come naranjas
(Desde mi balcón lo veo)
El segador siega el trigo
(Desde mi balcón lo siento)
Si muero
Dejad el balcón abierto 

Federico Garcia Lorca

The Balcony

if I die

leave the balcony open

The boy eats oranges

(from the balcony I see him)

the farmer cuts the wheat

leave the balcony open..*

Translation by Marika de la Maria

Carmona, Spain

Santa Maria Church, 15th-18th Century, Central nave and Main 

altar piece.

Alhambra of Granada

nothing seems  straight on this photograph!
I remember the difficulty of having this shot taken; holding the camera with left hand
stretched out straight while my upper body fully extended above the adjacent parapet
wall, with my right hand I was barely graping  one of the  the skimpy columns
of the balcony. Chance of tipping over  the parapet was real; but  I wasn't
paying much attention to this, neither anybody else was concerning with
my well being at the moment; the balcony was full with tourists, everyone
was busy with clicking of their cameras. My acrobatic
exercise seems unnoticeable, after all it was only two story flight
to the ground...

Old Canakkale Houses, Turkey

 I spent much of my
childhood summers here, on those days city doesn't offer much
to attrack the outside visitors, it was small town with 20,000 habitants,
and stayed the same as long as I remember. There was only four place
made up the whole town, Iskele, (dock), was the Canakkale's connection
to outside world, where the ships docked once a week, carried passangers
and cargo between Istanbul and here, then the famous Kordon boyu,
(board walk ), where everyone in the town went out for a strolling after
a late dinner, a real meeting place for the town folks. The Ataturk
meydani (Ataturk Square ) was saved for the ceramonies,
finally Carsi caddesi (Main Street) there all it was. The Main street covered
with parqeu stones, the automobil was rarity in those days, most of the folks
used bikes to get around or just walk. Streets either were covered with
parque stones or were just dirt roads. Two, or three story wood
and stone houses line up the streets. Nowadays there is not much left from those
old houses, just a few... things of the past...