THE COMBINED MAGIC OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY
St. Francis Yacht Club, San Francisco

ELECTROPHOTOMICROGRAPHY
Electrophotomicrography is a means of photographing electrically; and it also happens to be the longest word I could find in the dictionary when I was in elementary school. Oh, how I enjoyed the feel of the letters on my tongue as I spelled over and over and over, letting the rhythm catch my attention and my breath the way poetry does when it takes us away from ordinary considerations. I came across the word recently in a National Geographic article, and it brought back to my mind the smell of my sixth grade classroom and the teacher, the one I tried to impress with my spelling and with a cheap bottle of perfume called Evening in Paris. I bought the little bottle of perfume in its delphinium blue bottle to give to her just before Christmas hoping she would know that I was in love with her. Maybe I was just in love with her job. Although I’d never given it much thought, maybe she had something to do with my becoming a teacher. I’m also guessing that it may have been Miss Nonnie Bowman who first told me that poetry can always be found anywhere if you know how to look for it, like Moses finding manna in the desert.