Feb 8, 2017
I stared at this photo, and I wanted this story to be as deep as the center of the earth is, because surely that’s how far someone could have dug in the length of time I spent staring…
Yet the mantra in my mind was stuck on repeat and it repeated a cliché. I hate clichés. I spend hours rewriting clichés, but I couldn’t rewrite this one. So I wrote a poem about it instead. As if describing a cliché is any better than stating it outright.
It’s an acrostic poem, but it’s also a riddle!
Endlessly transparent,
Yet solid as clay,
Every time the curtains open
Soulful feelings bound to stray.
Every emotion, every word you think…
Every one of ‘em, shot out of each blink.
Can you guess the cliché? Answer below…
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Eyes are windows into the soul.
Did you guess right?
Oct 13, 2013 |
Photography and writing have always seemed to be in a battle to the death for my attention. A camera on my left shoulder and a pen in my right hand.
Even though they seem like perfectly compatible obsessions to have, you might be surprised to find out that’s just never been the case for me. It was always one or the other, never both.
I used to write poetry all the time. My poems went from mushy, gushy, inexperienced love to deep, dark depression. Back then being content never fostered enough emotional charge for poem writing.
Didn’t matter though, there was never an apathetic second in my life. Every moment was so dramatic because every experience was brand new. Every feeling so grandoise. Everything was always so all or nothing to me.
I’m going to be a writer! No! A photographer! Yeah, a photographer… ugh my photography sucks!! I’m going to be a writer… ugh my writing sucks even more.!!! (Well that’s the long story short – which I’m sure you appreciate ;-D)
I’m just realizing now that it wasn’t my photography and my writing that sucked… it was the photography and writing they told me I had to do if I wanted to make a living out of it. What royally sucked was being told to write about school politics and photograph bitchy women in white dresses. So I gave up.
Like a bad addiction though, they always crept back up on me, I just so happy that now they are playing nicely together.
Making this calendar was the first time I’ve ever put my two obsessions together. It was fun, it flowed, and I didn’t even realize what I was doing while I was doing it. I can have both? I can!
Not only can I do both, but I don’t need the desperate emotion to write something meaningful. The mundane can be interesting under the right lens, I just need to make someone look through it.
So I’ve been thinking about starting a weekly post featuring a photo and a poem. What do you think? Would you be interested in subscribing to this?
If you haven’t already, download my fine art calendar for 2014. It’s free!
