Poetry and Photography

[cz23]

April is National Poetry Month in the U.S. I thought I would share some poem/photo pairings throughout the month. If anyone else has the same interest, please feel free to share here.

I'll host mine on my site, only because I like that presentation better. I'll shoot for Wednesday and weekend posts, and will continue adding links to this thread.

Here's the first one: Amrit Vela.

John

 

[seakayaker1]

A beautiful image and poem!

Well done, and look forward to your future posts in this thread.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[rhl-oregon]

Thanks for this prompt, John. I rarely mix the two, but do have a recent example where the poem followed the photograph. Here they are.

T-bone Intersection
The cross of Javier Ayala stands
in the drainage of a hazelnut grove
like the stakes he drove to steady saplings
but not, like them, painted white, just his name,
weathered, lined, the graying face of long work.
Javier Ayala has a glass vase
for daffodils, an ashtray for your thoughts.
The sky drains through his gravel face. Someone
has set a brown beer bottle on his crown.
Not that it matters whether he was drunk
or dreaming, turning north or turning south.
Highway 99 is a black sentence
in a book that began in Mexico.
Green and gray, Yamhill County rolls away.

 

[rhl-oregon]

Poppy seed


Down there the farms with their cover crop of snow
like sheets hugged to the chin by each denizen
of a Dakota orphan home where a single stove

works overtime at the end of the horizon
made of broken bones and plaster of Paris where no
sleeper dreams of anything except a love

to thaw the stars those nails holding up a heaven
of night of winter of never of no
face to kiss them awake no third hand like a glove

slipped over their own to lift them lead them through
a whitewashed door into the day to be forgiven
for losing the poppy seed that God gave

to mother who died to father who seeded the snow
with black stars vanishing into each white furrow


_____________________

GR image over the midwest; poem was written a bit later on the same flight west from NYC.

 

[cz23]

Here's poem/photo pairing number 2 for National Poetry month: For Nic

 

[cz23]

Robert, those are both wonderful. "Highway 99 is a black sentence..." Love that line.

John

 

[rhl-oregon]

Thanks, John. And for my part, let me recommend that any RFFer who is also a father to a beloved son read "For Nic" and meditate on John's image of a leaf stuck to a rainy window.

 

[NY_Dan]

Nothing beats Gordon Parks' book Arias for pairing poetry with photography -- just say'in.

 

[cz23]

Thank you both. Robert, he's all grown up now, but we carry these moments, don't we? I know he does, too.

NY_Dan, I was not familiar with Parks' book, but just ordered it on Amazon. Used for $1.82! Appreciate the recommendation.

 

[NY_Dan]

John, 1.82! that's poetic 🙂 Seriously, Parks is a great writer --- read his autobiography -- Choice of Weopens -- fantastic

 

[johannielscom]

Nice!

No such thing as coincidence though 🙂


http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2470450&postcount=13


Just now started to scan the second set of portraits, posting again soon-ish!


Love the poems I just read and find them inspirational! Robert, your book still is read regularly here, thanks!

 

[cz23]

Happy Easter, everyone. Especially so to our Christian friends.

Poem 3 for National Poetry Month: Even Today.

 

[cz23]

Here's photo/poem pairing number 4 for National Poetry Month: Unnecessary

 

[Shirley Creazzo]

My rhymings hardly qualify as poetry .......... something quite simpler, that I think of as rhyming doggerel. Here an example.

A DAY'S HARVEST

Each day upon arising we may choose
The harvest of this short day's life.
Should we choose weeds,
We'll find them there, everywhere,
For Weeds are rife.

Still, the choice is ours -
We could choose flowers.

 

[airfrogusmc]

Heres some pieces of a book I put together some years back. Not always poems but images and words. Helped me through a very difficult time in my life. Not hallmark moments LoL...

 

[robert blu]

@ airfrogusmc: beautiful idea weel made!
robert

 

[airfrogusmc]

Thanks Robert. Photography can be great therapy to...

 

[cz23]

airfrogusmc, thanks for sharing that. A very nice presentation and some powerful reflection.

John

 

[cz23]

This short poem represented somewhat of a paradigm shift for me when I wrote it a few years ago. It's been helpful through some tough times, and still remains so.

Poem and photo pairing number 5 for National Poetry Month: If You Must

 

[rkm]

Thank you for this thread, John.
I needed these images and words today.
The mystery in the shadows, the lines between the lines, to hold perfectly all that cannot be resolved in the human heart.