Melinda Green Harvey

The late sunlight seems
to have sought out wine glasses
gathered on table.

Palermo, Sicily
photographed 8.29.2022
#haiku #poetry #palermo #sicily

This place has five mailboxes which makes me think it is some kind of downtown apartment.

Also, usually a pile of leaves in a doorway would indicate the building is abandoned, but it’s spring in West Texas, so all that probably means here is that the wind had been blowing.

Lubbock, Texas
3.4.2026

Tattoo place that’s called
Between the Lines sounds like a
really bad art class.

Buckhorn, Missouri
photographed 1.28.2023
#haiku #poetry #route66

Look at the way that red reflected light looks like a corsage. Or his cold dead eyes. Or the way his eyebrows look like he’s had feathers tattooed on where his brows used to be. Or the way that one false eyelash is hanging half way off. Or the haughty angle of his head.

Lubbock, Texas
3.4.2026

This public service
announcement is brought to you
from a cracked building.

Carlinville, Illinois
photographed 7.3.2022
#haiku #poetry

A few safety concerns with this playground.

But, naturally, the main thing I thought about was how “Suffer the little children”* was taking on a whole new meaning.

Levelland, Texas
2.28.2026

*Matthew (19:14), Mark (10:14), and Luke (18:16) all reported it. John was silent on the matter.

Because I was in
back of a clump, I turned away.
This was my reward.

Ragusa Ibla, Sicily
photographed 9.7.2022
#haiku #poetry #sicily #ragusaibla

“monday – friday”

All I know about Jonathan, who died at this rural intersection, are his birth and death dates.

He was born on a Monday and died on a Friday.

Separate from his cross, there were three others; they were wooden and unmarked.

Lynn County, Texas
photographed 2.28.2026

A typical night
in Palermo – people out
until nearly dawn.

Palermo, Sicily
photographed 8.31.2022
#haiku #poetry #palermo

My little grandpa
with his buddy, who appears
to be a giant.

Branson, Colorado
undated family photo

#haiku #poetry #vintagefamilyphoto

“So, what do you photograph?” – a frequent question I get.

I usually don’t get into how very much I love to find abandoned places that include reflections of whatever is behind me. But, yeah: that’s what I photograph.

Tahoka, Texas
photographed 2.28.2026

This sketchy motel
offer “truk” parking, which seems
to be important.

Granite City, Illinois
photographed 7.3.2022
#haiku #poetry

An abandoned farmhouse on the High Plains tells a story – a story of dreams, of rural traditions and expectations, of change, of endings.

An abandoned farmhouse with a wheelchair ramp tells a story that seems more complicated. And more sad.

Lynn County, Texas
photographed 2.28.2026

Residents left their
home so fast there was no time
to pack applesauce.

near Quitaque, Texas
photographed 12.29.2024
#applesauce #haiku #poetry

“Velour Elvis” is part of a new show called Re/Vision that opens tomorrow night at the Charles Adams Gallery in Lubbock. My long-term collaborator VC Torneden and I are presenting monotypes of selected images from our Route 66 project The Other Side.

Just across a dry and sticker-infested field from yesterday’s boat is a little church with the world’s saddest playground next to it. This hobby horse is the best thing there. And it feels like it’s trying to get away from a crime scene.

Levelland, Texas
photographed 2.28.2026

It feels like this place
has more wind turbines than it
has inhabitants.

Floyd County, Texas
photographed 12.29.2024
#haiku #poetry #horizon

Look! A boat graveyard.

This one, with a slight error in the Bible quote, has been there since 2021. I’m trying to imagine the circumstances that led to the decision to put a proselytizing boat in a field beside a cotton gin.

Mysterious ways and all that.

Levelland, Texas
photographed 2.28.2026

Look! I found potty
chair section in a street-side
Sicilian market.

Palermo, Sicily
photographed 9.1.2022
#haiku #poetry #sicily

This mobile home encountered something disastrous. It was new: as I walked up I could smell the new wood and the weird out-gassing smell of plastic laminate or flooring or whatever.

Also does the part of the wall that’s just below the power pole look like part of an eye?

Lynn County, Texas
2.28.26

I am very proud to announce that my photo “pool (4th floor view)” was selected by juror Catherine Couturier for FotoFest, presented by the Art League of Baytown. The theme is A Sense of Place. Fifty photos were selected for@the show, which runs from March 12-May 16.

People seem to think
saguaros grow everywhere
west of where they live.

Dolittle, Missouri
photographed 1.28.2023
#haiku #poetry

This one abandoned farmhouse featured not only a deceased rat lying on its back on the sofa, like it was taking a little nap, but it also had the morning light coming through windows and a broken flat-screen television.

Lynn County, Texas
photographed 2.28.2026

Check out that fancy
cake (to distract yourself from
ashtray on table).

Sonora, Texas
vintage family photo, 1964
#haiku #poetry #familyphoto

Let’s not even get into the discussion about if the building that’s held by the cloud-hand is supposed to be a hand-held size or if the cloud-hand is actually gigantic enough to hold an entire building.

Tahoka, Texas
photographed 2.28.2026

*to use the technical term

11 years old
and I was already a
street photographer.

Toluca, Mexico
summer 1967
#travel #haiku #poetry

Here’s an elevation of a church.

Or, you could also call it a “side view” or “the side” or even “a wall” if you’re so inclined.

Grand Coteau, Louisiana
photographed 10.22.2017

But do you know if
your employees even like
tacos? Big question.

Chicago, Illinois
photographed 7.1.2022

Well, as this sign clearly states, “something something something Love something something.” I feel that’s a message we can all support.

And as a lesson to all would-be quote-painters, maybe corrugated metal isn’t the most legible surface to choose.

Church Point, Louisiana
photographed 10.22.2017

Wind blew the next day,
steady and strong, to scatter
seeds to sprout in spring.

Caprock Canyons State Park, Texas
photographed 12.29.2024
#haiku #poetry