Traveling through the years

Ode to a 70 Year Old

In New Guinea, Lahore or Kathmandu
Sleeping in beds not made for two
Admiring the beautiful Taj Mahal
Awake in Africa for the lion’s call
In Borneo we were often seen
The choice for headhunter’s new cuisine
Around the world I’ve traveled with you
I will follow you into your seventies too.

~ Gwen C. Murray

The days before life imposes

The beauty of children all over the world

~ photos by Gwen C. Murray

Chicken in Pakistan

store and product on the street in Pakistan

~ photo by Gwen C. Murray

That smile

I took this photograph in Pakistan in 1980, this small girl in school, a small building in the mountains with thirty students. Each student used a stick to write on the dirt floor to do their lessons.

~ Gwen C. Murray

Spots from dinner in Burma

The boy with the watermelon was taken in Burma.

It was quite primitive at the time, I think we realized what culture shock was. Before we went through customs they counted my jewelry and made a list so I would return it on the way out. 

At the Strand hotel one could identify her table in the dining room by the spots from dinner the previous night.

The Burmese were lovely and the temples grand.

photos by Gwen Murray TRAVELING IN BURMA

Tiny girl

In the brown Moroccan village the color of sand In layers of dust and despair 

The child stands on a stick of a leg 

Wrapped in white cloth 

She will speak, begging for Dirham 

I see this tiny girl and do nothing 

I want to pay for her good health 

Soon she will be veiled 

Ready for picking 

Never ready for brown babies 

Who will tear her young flesh 

Demanding care she cannot give

~ GC Murray 2000

The dancing Gods of India

Pashupatinath temple
Dawn is filled with smoke
We join the milkdrinkers
Wear no leather belts or shoes
Wet cow’s breath follows us
Gentle music of glass bracelets
Worn by women with kohl rimmed eyes
Filling their brass urns with sacred water
Pyramids of soft powders
Colors of egg yolks and blood
Await
The dancing Gods of India

~ Gwen C. Murray

Cambodia and young monks

Young monks at Angkor Wat, Cambodia ~ photos by Gwen C. Murray in 2011

A sacred holy place

Varanasi, also Benares, Banaras or Kashi, is a city on the banks of the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh, 320 kilometres southeast of the state capital, Lucknow. It is holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism and Jainism.

Talk to me of nothing

“You smiled and talked to me of nothing and I felt that for this I had been waiting long.” ― Rabindranath Tagore

All photos below taken by Gwen C. Murray on an overland trip with her husband Jerry from Beijing to Pakistan in September/October of 1994.

Guatemala ~ some photos

Guatemala

Photos taken by Gwen C. Murray on a trip to Guatemala in 2005