I took this in a hardware store's parking lot. There was absolutely nothing beautiful about yesterday. In fact, the weather around these parts has been horrendous. I was glad when I found this leaf lying here.

doormat

Tourists filing out of the Sistine Chapel - Morgan Harper, April 2009

Surely, Michelangelo painted it,
Botticelli completed it, and
Janitor wiped down the windows for it, but
who am I?
Yes, I am here, but I am barely here.
Unworthy, undeserving, and burdened.
with an internal question of my place:
Who am I to be here?

I am perplexed with man's explication of
God,
and a metanoia of human identity--
one I appreciate, but have failed to comprehend.

It is a portrait
a promise and
redemption of something vague that
I am not certain I understand nor
if it were ever intended for me.

And here today, all must hail the
Italian security guard--high and high on his
assigned pedestal, he is trained to tame bands of
(gelato-filled Trevi-awed brochure-clutching camera-happy)
explorers who are
timeless and hungry
"In Rome."

And I among them, is just as credulously here,
fighting to experience what the postcard exclaims.
I am here dangling Eliot at my side who
taught me that the
women coming and going are in fact
real, but in actuality should seem more like
mannequins to me
(appealing, but no desire ever to become).

But had Eliot been here today, had he
lived this burden, had he himself
stroked the delicate hairs of the
cyst-like apathy
growing on the foreheads his own kind,
what then would he have written of us all?

What would he have written of you, Sistine,
too exhaustive to eternalize?
What would he have made of you--
once a mantle of stars, now a doormat to mankind?

Landfill

Today's trend ends up in tomorrow's landfill.
-David Amram (composer, conductor)

It is a constant prayer of mine that our generation does not succumb to what is instantaneous, popular, and "relevant." We are so much more than that. God has created us so much greater than technology, magazines, and things made out of plastic. Twenty years from now, where will our wisdom be? What will we teach our children?

Silence is so accurate. - Mark Rothko

reading my old fiction. oh. boy.

I have a closet full of binders containing pages upon pages of novels I wrote from ages 9-14. I went through some of them today. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t any good material that I could resurface for a newer project..I wonder if I will feel that way about projects I am working on now?

less than 7 days remain..

less than 7 days remain..
Originally uploaded by .morgan, again

I'm leaving England soon. In a week and a day to be precise. It's overwhelming to think about how quickly--not just England, but my life is slipping by me. I feel like it was just last week I lugged my suitcases into this same room, thinking to myself, "I can't believe I made it." Now, as I have started packing those same suitcases, I'm presented with a similar thought...except now I'm it's, "I can't believe it's over."

I'll be done with college in Atlanta a year from now.
I want to come back here and spend some time with the people I've met before I start graduate school in the Fall.

Dessert Kick

Dessert Kick
Originally uploaded by .morgan nov elate

I don't know where it comes from, but lately I have been on a massive dessert kick, it's kind of strange! The day before I made this...whatever it is, I don't even know, I made sugar cookies from scratch. That's right. From scratch. None of that box nonsense.

And yesterday I invented this. Not to say that no one has ever done it before, but I literally made it up as I went along. It's like a brownie/cookie...the light brown is brown sugar, the dark brown is chocolate bar, and the light-light brown is American peanut butter. To be fair, I think it looks a lot better than it taste, but I'm going to guess that over time, it will taste better...definitely going to try and make it again when I get back to the U.S...if only I could remember the recipe...

Reverse Summer Reading List

I haven't read any books. In a while...Aren't I a 3rd-year English/Literature student? Well there's your answer. Between endless piles of papers, revising, required readings, and well, pure laziness, I am currently in the middle of a solid chapter of idleness and I need to get out of it! So here is what I am planning on reading this summer. Any suggestions? Please recommend, because I am definitely out of the loop:

1. Everything Is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer

2. No Country of Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

3. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

4. A Grief Observed - C.S. Lewis

5. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

6. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino

Anyways. Please recommend, and I will Traditionally I'm more of an epic novel type person, but up for anything, really.

-Morgan H

a desperation to be understood. ends me here everytime. only God knows.

if you could have been somebody, you could have loved anyone

probably been listening to a bit too much Ray LaMontagne lately, but check this out. one of my new songs...FREE MP3 here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/hp116c

you said if you could be somebody
you could love anyone
and as hard as it seems,
I know it can be done

guns and dusk at the dawn of day
you said, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die that way
and there's an art to breaking a heart
out of the mold, out of the dark
are you capable? when you say...

you said if you could be somebody
you could love anyone
and as hard as it seems,
I know it can be done

giveaway cars and getaway stars
linger on this freedom that they can always come back,
yeah they can always come back
but you don't really feel like liberty
you don't really know what you want or need
or if it's worth being free

you said if you could be somebody
you could love anyone
and as hard as it seems at times
I know it can be done

'cause freedom don't linger for too long
no, no...freedom don't sure don't linger for too long
oh, no it don't, you better figure it out
what you want..
trust me, I know what it's like
because

if I had been somebody
you could have been the one
and as unreal as it seems
I know it can't undone
no it can't be undone

habakkuk

she keeps reading Habakkuk, and of
withering fig trees.
Trying her best to make sense of the universe that
lets her believe:
"You'll be a hero someday, and
you really aren't as lonely as you think you are"

on Tuesday nights and
Christmas afternoons,
when everyone else has gone to sleep,
she stumbles outside to
the car in the driveway only to find
the windows left down and snow
covering all the seats.

She keeps hearing voices and the
stone cold carburetor that's
trying its best to take her to that place
she's never seen, but
will know when she's find it, because
"you really aren't as lost as you thought you were"

on Sunday mornings and
in brand new Decembers
when she can't remember why she's still in bed,
the phone is ringing but
she won't answer it because
she knows what he's going to say:

"though your fig tree may not harvest,
you must still rejoice"

and she'll wander the silent streets
just to realize it doesn't get any deeper than that.

-Morgan Harper, 2007-05-23

.Je me suis finalement rappelé d'ajouter à Bokeh mercredi!

.Je me suis finalement rappelé d'ajouter à Bokeh mercredi!
Originally uploaded by .morgan nov elate

|I finally remembered to do Bokeh Wednesday! It is Wednesday, right?

(I hope I translated that right)

So I leave for England tomorrow! Hard to believe I started counting down at 73 days. Wow, so much time has passed. My sister is in Nashville now, and me and my parents are back in Atlanta..it's going to be weird for them tomorrow because they won't have any kids in the state of Georgia...and one of them (me), will be all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. I have never in my life crossed an ocean or even the U.S. border. For the longest time I had no idea when I ever could but now I finally get to..and I get to go with a purpose.

american cemetery

american cemetery
Originally uploaded by .morgan nov elate

I'm not sure what it is with me and cemeteries. Since I was young, I have always been intrigued by them. For me it's a place of an absolute surrender that only souls know..that I will only know when I die. It's like a mystery, only better, because I believe so deeply in the after life. Sometimes I wish I knew what was on the flip side of that grave, but most of the time, I am glad that I don't know and when I do finally know, it won't matter anymore.

I Will Be There When You Die | My Morning Jacket

Moving to England in....5 days?

Moving to England in....5 days?
Originally uploaded by .morgan nov elate

Sooo this is what I'm up against today. As you can see, I'm going through a few things trying to decide what stays and what goes. It's looking like it's going to be a lot of "what stays," heh. Anyhow, I'm expecting this to take all day...soo what I'm going to do is go downstairs, make some coffee, come back up, and try to knock this out. Please pray for me!