Flashbacks: Echoes of Past Issues
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COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Viola, 2008 (photograph) by Meredith Hebden
A single day took it all from him, by theft and murder, by fire from heaven, by a gust of wind. These days I fear one microbe, a fearful cop, an angry canceler’s lust to erase, one moment’s inattention at the wheel or in a friendship. In prayers as short as breath, I offer up a bleeding heart, crushed muscadine and pink dianthus, flower of Zeus: Purge me from fear and anger, give me a cheerful face, a heart of gladness and tender mercies, wisdom’s beginning.
MEREDITH HEBDEN is a botanic/floral art photographer, a horticulturist, and the gardens manager for Van Landingham Glen at UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens. She studied at the University of New Hampshire and Oregon State University, and she received a BS in Photojournalism with a Botany minor from Northern Arizona University. Since 1993, she has been photographer in residence at Meredith Hebden Photography in Charlotte.