Category: Photography

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Generosity

“Cherry tomatoes on the vine” photographed by Sandy Ross Bender.
“Generosity” composed, performed, and recorded by Sandy Ross Bender with vocals (from a poem of the same title) accompanied with guitar on December 24, 2015.

I was in deep despair

For a thousand reasons

But I went anyway

To a community garden,

In a peaceful pasture

Outstretched to the treeline

Far below the the towering steeples.

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Led by Sister Ana

Who cut me a bouquet

Of brightly colored zinnias

Speckled red and white,

Magenta and yellow

Flaymboyant

Like living paper mache.

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Here, take these purple tomatoes

And these bundles of chard

From this verdant bounty

Of peppers and squash,

Melons, pumpkins, carrots, and dill

Make them into your dinner

To sustain you through the night.

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“Generosity” written by Sandy Ross Bender on August 13, 2010.

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The Sand Dollar

“The Sand Dollar” collected and photographed by Sanford Bender on June 15, 2021.
“The Sand Dollar”, a poem written on July 10, 2010, with music sung and accompanied with acoustic guitar by Sanford Bender on June 25, 2015

The Sand Dollar

Walking around the curve of beach

The light house still far to the west

Out over seemingly endless dunes

An infinite distance reminding me

Of the poet who observed that

Beyond mountains

Were more mountains,

Soon after my companion turned back

I accepted the futility of continuing

But in my turning around

Circumventing the ocean’s horizon

Looked down upon a treasure trove of shells

Glittering beneath my feet,

There in the curls of seaweed

I found a sand dollar

Smooth and round

Ten pine like needles radiating

The image of the moon

Which would soon appear

Over the darkening sea

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Along the Corn Furrows

Along the Corn Furrows – photograph by Sanford Bender – February 6, 2021

I was in Tyler Park near my home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania on a cold, wintry day. The sun was low in the sky and the bare trees and knobby remnants of corn stalks evoked the music I had recorded a few days earlier…