“It is no longer possible to ‘log off.” Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair, CounterPunch – CC BY 4.0
These are some photographs I’ve taken of curb communiqués that have caught my eye while walking and cycling around Portland. Some are political. Some are jokes. Some are both. Some unlock the mysteries of the universe. Some I can’t make heads or tails of, but maybe you can decipher their code.
They are free to share and use, as long as you credit: ‘Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair, CounterPunch – CC BY 4.0′
“I love to squander my potential in Portland, Oregon.”
“Look at us now! Things are looking up. Fuck tha haters. All love PDX!”
“Caution: We are being bled dry.”
“Our love was torment. Nothing
seems clearer than to call
a rose a rose and our story
love. It is something else
to carry wordlessly
the blaze of love
one more step
into the abyss.
…
Our tragedy is so stark;
I shall never find the strength
to banish you from my terror.
My beloved on the far side! When I am awake
you never cease
to sing my dream.”
– Abba Kovner
“Feed people, not landfills.”
“Christian nationalists LOVE Grindr!”
“Born to walk. Forced to drive.”
“You know it. I know it. Something is wrong.”
“If you promise to stay alive just a little bit longer, I promise that we are going to make this world a place worth living in, by any means necessary. I ain’t giving up. I swear.”
“Who’s your dada? Art has rules. Dada has none.”
“The world is slop, and I’m staring down the eye of the hog.”
“100% Sucka FREE!”
See ya next week.
“Years do odd things to identity.
What does it mean to say
I am that child in the photograph
at Kishamish in 1935?
Might as well say I am the shadow
of a leaf of the acacia tree
felled seventy years ago
moving on the page the child reads.
Might as well say I am the words she read
or the words I wrote in other years,
flicker of shade and sunlight
as the wind moves through the leaves.”
– Ursula K. Le Guin, Leaves
