© Mike Yost
Author Archives
Mike Yost (Photographer/Writer)
I have a passion for words and photography (and craft beer . . . and weed). Just trying to be creative and experience the creativity of others before I'm kicked off this lonely planet. Death may nullify my body and brain, but (hopefully) not my art. I've been capturing snapshots of time and writing out the thoughts of fictional characters in my head since I was a kid. Maybe even younger! Not sure. It's hard to remember that far back. (I blame the weed.) I had the opportunity to pen a novel for grad school. Five characters. One narrative. Existential dread! You can purchase my first book, Remnants of Light, on Amazon here: http://amzn.com/B00MZBT15C It's available in paperback if you want to be retro and ebook if you want to be modern. Personally I think there should be a stone tablet option.A Boy and His Horse
I bought the truck from some guy up in Greeley. Cash in hand. The owner wore a white cowboy hat and held a firm handshake. Mid-sized truck with a toolbox in the bed. Manual transmission. 4X4. Exactly what I wanted. I named the truck Cthulhu.
Cthulhu is a bit old. Over 200,000 miles. The air conditioner doesn’t work. His frame groans when driving over ditches, though he never complains about his aching bones.
Cthulhu is a bit beat up. Massive dents like the surface of the moon. A door handle that broke off long ago. Claw marks along the side from a massive tree on a narrow road that was more rocks than road.
But Cthulhu has heart, grit, and fortitude. He attacks each mountain pass with the loud growl from a rusting muffler. He jerks the steering wheel out of my hand, driving us off onto a dirt road—any dusty path that’s far away from hot asphalt.
I bounce around in the cab of the truck with a broad smile as we ricochet across washboard roads walled by trees and steep cliffs. The windows are cranked all the way down, and I can smell earth. Radio off. Wild wind whirling about the cabin with dust that swirls and burns bright in the sunlight.
We rest inside a thick nest of evergreens, split apart by a babbling stream that rolls down distant hills. Cthulhu sits covered in dust—and he smiles, having escaped the heat and chaos of crowded city streets. I lay down nearby in the shade of aspens that shake in the breeze.
I wonder if those vagabonds who wandered through the Rocky Mountains with only their horse felt the same way. A silly notion perhaps. The fondness of a steed with oil for blood. A steel horse with a heart of fire named Cthulhu.
I close my eyes, and we listen to the serpentine wind glide through the treetops.
© Mike Yost
Beauty from Tragedy
© Mike Yost
Wandering the Planet, Wandering the Mind
© Mike Yost
Quoth the Raven
© Mike Yost
Adaptation
© Mike Yost
Fractions of Light
© Mike Yost
Three in the Shadows
© Mike Yost
Color the Alley
© Mike Yost
11th Street
© Mike Yost
Ignite the Mind
© Mike Yost
Color does not exist in your eyes
© Mike Yost
No Shadow without Light
© Mike Yost
Denver Denizens are Divine
© Mike Yost
Before Lockdown
© Mike Yost
Night Walk Surrounded by 13.9 Million People
© Mike Yost
Shadows Dancing with the Sun
© Mike Yost
No Center to the Self
© Mike Yost
Meandering on Over to the Train Station
© Mike Yost
A Cool February Morning in Tokyo below a Thicket of Clouds
© Mike Yost
Tokyo Streets
© Mike Yost
Color is a Construct
© Mike Yost
Suchness
© Mike Yost
Put on a Happy Face
© Mike Yost
Drift Wood
© Mike Yost