In grateful remembrance of the Canadian jazz piano legend, Oscar Peterson, who died on Sunday, December 23.

I created this duality a few hours before hearing of Oscar Peterson's passing, but I believe that something deep in me was already responding to this monumental loss to the world of music. For a jazz lover like me, Oscar epitomized the essence of this music that stirs the heart and touches the soul. There will be many grand and glorious jazz pianists to come but there will never be another Oscar Peterson. Like Ella Fitzgerald, he is in a class by himself. How grateful I am to have been living during his time. I never heard Oscar Peterson play in person but his albums and CDs were gift enough. Thank god, they will never die.

Today I'd like to share a portion of a comment left by my dear friend, Dorothy Walters. If you recall, Dorothy came from her home in San Francisco to visit Ed and me in October (CLICK HERE to see her). Not only is Dorothy a published poet (CLICK HERE to buy her book "Marrow of Flame"), but for many years she taught Women's Literature classes at Wichita State University in Kansas. Actually Dorothy started the Women's Studies program there back in the 1970s. Dorothy and I met at a poetry reading in San Francisco in November 1998 and have been close friends ever since. All this to say that when Dorothy speaks, especially about literature, I listen. Here is what she had to say about my Duality series:

"Your 'dualities' series made me think of what in poetry is called 'metamorphic variants.' This term applies when symbol is carried through in many different forms throughout a poem. Thus, in Whitman's Leaves of Grass, there are many, many images suggesting 'grass,' one being 'the uncut hair of graves.' This kind of fluidity is also apparent in your paired photos. And--you could, in fact, continue, one thing shifting into another, for a long time, had you room enough and desire. But the dualities themselves are fascinating. As I said, they are like delving into the very womb of creation to discover the basic forms out of which all else is constructed."