12/27/2009
Memories of My Mother Olga Diaz
Amazing how fast a year passes by. I can't believe it's been a year since I lost my mom. Believe it or not, I'm still organizing and going through her stuff today. I'm lucky that I have her music that I can listen to. Let's me know that she is still with me; as if she never left. Of course as long as we remember and love someone, they will always live on with you within you.
12/24/2009
Christmas 2009
This was my first Christmas Eve and my first Christmas without my Mom. I'm sure she was there with me in spirit. I miss her physical presence, but her spiritual presence was with me today. Love carries on beyond the material world into the spiritual world. As long as we keep the ones we love in our heart, they will never die.
But now that the presents are wrapped and put together. The pork was cooked and eaten and as now everything is put away, the night is silent. And it is good. I think back to the beginning...
But now that the presents are wrapped and put together. The pork was cooked and eaten and as now everything is put away, the night is silent. And it is good. I think back to the beginning...
"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'"
Luke 2:8-14
Photo of Everglades National Park
© 2009 by Michael Pancier Photography
© 2009 by Michael Pancier Photography
12/23/2009
Fill Yourself with the Light
"The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness.""Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness.
"If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays."
Luke 11:34-36
Image taken at Fort Myers Beach, Florida
© 2009 Michael A. Pancier
© 2009 Michael A. Pancier
12/11/2009
Believe in the Light
Image of Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada© 2009 by Michael A. Pancier
"While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light."
- John 12:36
12/09/2009
A Time to Pray
Inside the Chapel of the Holy Cross - Sedona, Arizona© 2009 by Michael A. Pancier
Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com
“There is no one holy like the Lord;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God."
- Samuel 2:2
12/08/2009
In God's Wildness...
Grand Canyon National Park © 2009 by Michael A. PancierPlease visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com
"In God's wildness lies the hope of the world - the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness. The galling harness of civilization drops off, and wounds heal ere we are aware." - John Muir
Sancte MÌchael Archangele,
defende nos in proelio contra nequÌtiam et insÌdias diaboli esto presÌdium.
Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecemur:
tuque, princeps milÌtie celestis, Satanam aliusque spÌritus malÌgnos, qui ad perditiunem animorum pervagantur in mundo, divÌna virtute, In infernum detrude. Amen.
12/07/2009
God Knows
God knows there's a river,
God knows how to make it flow,
God knows you ain't gonna be taking
Nothing with you when you go.God knows there's a purpose,
God knows there's a chance,
God knows you can rise above the darkest hour
Of any circumstance.God knows there's a heaven,
God knows it's out of sight,
God knows we can get all the way from here to there
Even if we've got to walk a million miles by candlelight.-- Bob Dylan
12/05/2009
In Dark & Empty Skies
Great Egret © 2009 by Michael A. PancierPlease visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com
Oh, the tree of life is growing
Where the spirit never dies
And the bright light of salvation shines
In dark and empty skies
-- Bob Dylan
12/03/2009
If Dogs Run Free
Image © 2007 by Michael Pancier Photographyvisit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com
If dogs run free, then why not we
Across the swooping plain?
My ears hear a symphony
Of two mules, trains and rain.
The best is always yet to come,
That's what they explain to me.
Just do your thing, you'll be king,
If dogs run free.If dogs run free, why not me
Across the swamp of time?
My mind weaves a symphony
And tapestry of rhyme.
Oh, winds which rush my tale to thee
So it may flow and be,
To each his own, it's all unknown,
If dogs run free.If dogs run free, then what must be,
Must be, and that is all.
True love can make a blade of grass
Stand up straight and tall.
In harmony with the cosmic sea,
True love needs no company,
It can cure the soul, it can make it whole,
If dogs run free.- Bob Dylan
12/01/2009
Dawn of a New Age - December 2009
Castillo San Marco - St. Augustine, Florida
“In the dawn, armed with a burning patience, we shall enter the splendid Cities.”
-- Arthur Rimbaud
11/30/2009
The End of the November Road
Nevada Image © 2009 - Michael A. Pancier, All Rights ReservedPlease visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com
Valley of Fire State Park - Nevada
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand
In a...desperate land
Lost in a Roman...wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah
There's danger on the edge of town
Ride the King's highway, baby
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby
Ride the snake, ride the snake
To the lake, the ancient lake, baby
The snake is long, seven miles
Ride the snake...he's old, and his skin is cold
The west is the best
The west is the best
Get here, and we'll do the rest
--- James Morrison
11/27/2009
And So It Begins ... Black Friday 2009
Image Canyonlands National Park © 2009 by Michael A. PancierPlease visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com
Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
- Bob Dylan
11/26/2009
Happy Thanksgiving - 2009
Male Anhinga - Everglades National Park© 2009 by Michael Pancier Photography
Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
11/25/2009
Vultures are Lurking
Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
Inside of a leather cup
But all his sexless patients
They're trying to blow it up
Now his nurse, some local loser
She's in charge of the cyanide hole
And she also keeps the cards that read
"Have Mercy on His Soul"
They all play on penny whistles
You can hear them blow
If you lean your head out far enough
From Desolation Row
-- Bob Dylan
11/24/2009
Be Wary of Snakes
Image of Serpent © 2009 Michael A. PancierPlease visit my website www.michaelpancierphotography.com
Well, John the Baptist after torturing a thief
Looks up at his hero the Commander-in-Chief
Saying, "Tell me great hero, but please make it brief
Is there a hole for me to get sick in?"
The Commander-in-Chief answers him while chasing a fly
Saying, "Death to all those who would whimper and cry"
And dropping a bar bell he points to the sky
Saying, "The sun's not yellow it's chicken"
-- Bob Dylan
11/23/2009
The Feeding Begins
"Appeasers believe that if you keep on throwing steaks to a tiger, the tiger will become a vegetarian” -- Heywood C. Broun
11/22/2009
God's Greatest Gift
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia© 2009 Michael Pancier Photography
Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com
"The greatest gift that God in His bounty made in creation, and the most conformable to His goodness, and that which He prizes the most, was the freedom of will, with which the creatures with intelligence, they all and they alone, were and are endowed." -- Dante
11/21/2009
Good Tidings from Shenandoah National Park
- "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."
- -- John Muir, Our National Parks , 1901
11/19/2009
Landscape Poetry
Image © 2009 Michael Pancier Photography, All Rights ReservedImages and Prints Available at MichaelPancierPhotography.com
This T.S. Eliot poem came to mind as I took this photo in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years—
Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l'entre deux guerres
Trying to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure
Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,
Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate—but there is no competition—
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under starlight,
A time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album).
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.T.S. Eliot - East Coker
11/18/2009
Happy Birthday Olga - First Birthday in Heaven
Today would have been my mom's birthday. This is the first year I celebrate it without her. Many miss her music, and her joyfulness, and her laughter and humor. I do too. But I can't tell you how much I miss talking to her and hearing her words and her motherly advice and wisdom that she gave me until the end.I know in her way she is there watching over me and her grandchildren along with my dad. When our mothers pass on, I think they become our guardian angels to watch over us and protect us from harm and to help guide us in difficult times.
She is enjoying her first birthday party in Heaven. I'm sure she and her friends will be having a wonderful time with plenty of music and laughter. Some of it will be heard here on Earth. I am hearing it now.
Love you always ...
Your Son Michael
11/17/2009
Words from George Washington
Images and Prints available at michaelpancierphotography.com
Be courteous to all but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence; true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to appellation.- GEORGE WASHINGTON
Image © 2009 by Michael Pancier Photography
11/16/2009
My Course in Good Water
© 2009 Michael Pancier Photography“Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.” -- John Muir
Please visit my new photography website here.
11/14/2009
Leave it as it is
"In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which, so far as I know, is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to do one thing in connection with it in your own interest and in the interest of the country - to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is.
* * *
Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American if he can travel at all should see."
-- President Theodore Roosevelt, Grand Canyon, Arizona, May 6, 1903
Images & Prints Available at Michael Pancier Photography Official Website
11/13/2009
The Desert Is Calling and I Must Go
Zion National Park - Utah
Images and Prints available for sale at
www.michaelpancierphotography.com
11/12/2009
11/09/2009
A Sad Truth
"The gross heathenism of civilization has generally destroyed nature, and poetry, and all that is spiritual." --- John Muir
11/04/2009
Words to Live By
Image of Everglades National Park (c) 2009 by Michael A. Pancier
"The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls." - John Muir
10/27/2009
A Prayer
Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio; contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur: tuque, Princeps militiae Caelestis, satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen.
10/23/2009
Michael Pancier Photography Website Online
Please Take a Look Here.
The photo of the capital was taken a week ago during my trip to rainy and cold Washington.
8/26/2009
8/17/2009
8/14/2009
8/13/2009
Happy Birthday Dad
August 13 is usually looked as the birth date of a decrepit tyrant. To me, this date has always been my dad's birthday. He would have turned 85 today. Since his untimely death in 1994, I would always commiserate about my dad on this day with my mom. Now for the first time in my life, I no longer have her to commiserate with. As an only child growing up it was essentially Mom, Dad, the Cuban Abuelos, and me that lived together. As the years went on, my grandfather died in 1977, my grandmother in 1988, my dad in 1994 and my mom in 2008. Now I'm at the top of the heap as they say.
If there is a Heaven where all the souls are hanging out and partying and what not, then I know that my old man is celebrating today with my mom. I'm sure she's playing the piano for him which he and their old friends are enjoying once again.
As for me, in the words of Beatle George Harrison, "All I have is a photograph and I realize you're not coming back anymore." It's a good thing I always took pictures. It's the one bit of advice I can always give anyone. Even if you're not a photographer, always take pictures of your loved ones and friends. In everyday settings, not just holidays and special events. I took this photograph in 1978 on B&W film as a teenager. It's always been one of my favorite pics of the old man. My grandmother's reflection is in the image too. Probably one of my most treasured images.
So rather than expend energy on the evil tyrant today, I'll toast the old man. Salut!
8/08/2009
7/24/2009
7/21/2009
7/17/2009
7/04/2009
7/04/2009
July 4, 2008
"Shall I tell it again how we started as friends
Who would run into one another now and again
At the yippee cai o or the mesa dupree
Or a dozen different everyday places to be
I was loping along living alone
We were ever so brave on the telephone
Would you care to come down for fireworks time
We could each just reach
We step out of line
And the smell of the smoke and the lay of the land
And the feeling of finding ones heart in ones hand
And the tiny tin voice of the radio band singing
Love must stand
Love forever and ever must stand
Unbelievable you, impossible me
The fool who fell out of the family tree
The fellow that found the philosophers stone
Deep underground like a dinosaur bone
Who fell into you at a quarter to two
With a tear in your eye for the fourth of july
For the patriots and the minutemen
And the things you believe they believed in then
Such as freedom, and freedoms land
And the kingdom of God and the rights of man
With the tiny tin voice of the radio band
Singing love must stand
Love forever and ever must stand
And forever must stand
Oh the smell of the smoke as we lay on the land
And the feeling of finding my heart in my hand
With the tiny tin voice of the radio band
Singing love must stand
Love forever and ever must stand
All on the fourth of July
On the fourth of July"
-- James Taylor
7/03/2009
Grand Canyon & Colorado River
Grand Canyon Overlook - Grand Canyon National Park - Arizona
(c) 2009 by Michael A. Pancier
All Rights Reserved
6/17/2009
6/07/2009
5/28/2009
5/22/2009
Homenaje Postumo A Olga Diaz - Mayo 30, 2009
My mother Olga Diaz Pancier who left Cuba at age 21, spent over a half century entertaining the people of South Florida, and Latin America with her piano. Before she passed away last December 27, 2008, she had been scheduled to perform a benefit concert for Regis House in Miami, an excellent faith based organization helping children and families with substance abuse and mental health issues, this past February. Her last concert for Regis House in 2008 raised lots of money for the organization. Since my mother was not able to fulfill her 2009 Concert, myself and musical director Roberto Lozano decided to stage a Tribute Concert for my Mother starring a plethora of the finest Cuban Entertainers.
The list of entertainers will each select their favorite works that they enjoyed hearing my mother perform during her career. It's going to be fantastic and all of the proceeds benefit this fine charity.
This concert is one that should not be missed. Rarely will you have such a large lineup of talent in the areas of jazz, classical, and Latin Music on one stage.
I hope to see you there.
Tickets are $ 40, $ 30, and $ 25.
They can be purchased by contacting:
Ester Rodriguez at 305-861-7794 or
Luly Alvarino at 305-551-0109
4/29/2009
4/26/2009
4/13/2009
4/04/2009
The Mysterious Lady
Photo taken of an attractive French flight attendant in Paris most likely by my dad. Found it in the garage and was taken to this picture. The picture hasn't seen the light of day for a long time. Now it's on the web. My dad had a talent for photography, but he never pursued it.
3/31/2009
3/21/2009
3/16/2009
3/10/2009
3/07/2009
Olga Diaz - Pianist - 1966
Olga Diaz
8x10 Glossy that my Mom used in the mid 1960's. This photo was taken in 1966 I believe. I even have the original 8x10 Negative.
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