Old cars are everywhere. Sometimes a car sits and sits, inside a family garage, or under a cover, waiting for a child who lives in a different city, or a grandchild, to claim it.

Out in the country, you might find one in the corner of a field, being reclaimed by rust and weeds, saplings thrusting through a back seat. Somehow, one abandoned car might draw another, and another, and another, until there’s a graveyard in the woods.

Once, a mid-Fifties Ford sat in the lot next to a rural nursery, a balloon hanging from an antenna. The car might still be there, but probably the balloon has gone flat.

An old car 

beside the road carries 

a secret scratched 

in yellow for those 

who still remember 

the destination. 

 

—Inspired by this photograph:

Paint Scratches on Old Car, Sandy © 2026 by Robert Hecht. All rights reserved.

Reproduced here from Instagram (21 April 2026) with artist’s permission.

Robert Hecht

is an octogenarian who believes pictures are everywhere. He has been a fine-art photographer for nearly sixty years. Largely self-taught, he learned his craft primarily by studying the prints and books of many of the medium’s greats, and then by attempting to apply what he absorbed from them in the darkroom (and later in the digital darkroom). In addition, he studied briefly with photographer and teacher Ruth Bernhard in the 1970s, an experience he considers meaningful for giving him direct contact and exchange of ideas with a master.

Hecht’s photographs have been exhibited internationally, purchased for both private and public collections, and showcased in leading periodicals, including Black & White Magazine, LensWork, The Sun, and ZYZZYVA, among others; as well as in the book Dream of Venice in Black and White (Bella Figura Publications, 2018). He is also the author of Stolen Moments: A Photographer’s Personal Journey (2024).

His photographs, essays, and interviews appear in Jerry Jazz Musician. His poetry (haiku and haibun) have been published in Big Sky: The Red Moon Anthology of English Language Haiku (2006); bottle rockets; Contemporary Haibun Online; Frogpond Journal; The Heron’s Nest; Modern Haiku; Roadrunner Haiku; and elsewhere.

For several decades, Hecht has worked primarily as a producer-director of educational film and video programs, first at Stanford University and then in his own video-production business. His former podcast series, The Joys of Jazz, was the 2019 Silver Medal winner in the New York Festivals Radio Awards. He and his wife live in Portland, Oregon.

Robert Hecht on Instagram: roberthechtphotography2.0

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ “Two Famous Johns”—a true jazz story by Bob Hecht in Jerry Jazz Musician (16 April 2026)

⚡ “Two Jazz Survivors”—a true jazz story by Bob Hecht in Jerry Jazz Musician (14 August 2025)

⚡ Notes on Bob Hecht’s book, Stolen Moments: A Photographer’s Personal Journey by Joe Maita in Jerry Jazz Musician (27 November 2024)

⚡ Car and Sycamore, B&W photograph by Robert Hecht in Black and White Magazine (2011 Portfolio)

⚡ Passages, haibun by Hecht in Simply Haiku (Autumn 2007)

Gary S. Rosin’s

work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Chaos Dive Reunion (Mutabilis Press, 2023); contemporary haibun 17 (Red Moon Press, 2022); Concho River Review; The Ekphrastic Review; Friendswood Ekphrastic Poetry Anthology ((The Friendswood Public Library); MacQueen’s Quinterly; Notes of Light and Dark: Southwestern Nocturnes and Aubades (Dos Gatos Press, 2025); Sulphur River Literary Review; Texas Poetry Calendar; and Visions International.

Two of his ekphrastic poems appear in Silent Waters, photographs by George Digalakis (Athens, 2017). Rosin is the author of two chapbooks, Standing Inside the Web (Bear House Publishing, 1990) and Fire and Shadows (Legal Studies Forum, 2008). He is a Contributing Editor of MacQueen’s Quinterly, and his work has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes and the Best of the Net Anthology.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Icelandic Reflections by Gary S. Rosin in The Ekphrastic Review (4 August 2024)

⚡ Four Poems After Photographs by Rosin in The Ekphrastic Review (4 June 2023)

⚡ Three Poems by Rosin (published March–May 2023) in dadakuku, experimental poetry of lilliputian length

⚡ Night Wind, ekphrastic poem by Rosin in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 15, September 2022); nominated for Best of the Net

⚡ Black Dogs, poem by Rosin in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 12, March 2022); nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

See also Two Readings: “Apparition” and “Black Dogs” by Rosin for Texas Poetry Calendar 2015 at the Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Texas (20 September 2014).

⚡ Out of the Haze, collaborative haiga with photograph by George Digalakis and poem by Gary S. Rosin in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 8, June 2021); nominated for, and selected for publication in, Contemporary Haibun 17 (Red Moon Press, 2022)

⚡ Featured Poet: Gary S. Rosin in Issue 7 of MacQ (March 2021)

⚡ Crossing Kansas in The Wild Word (7 February 2020); includes audio of Rosin reading his poem