Saturday
Apr092011
Pictures and Poems
April 9, 2011 * * * * * Posted by: guest blogger 
This feels a little like deja vu..."I've been here before"..but just not recently. It was in high school, forty years ago. My senior English project was a selection of my photographs with the "poetry' they inspired in me. Typed on an old Underwood Manual. Proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, neat and clean, all dry-mounted, clipped into a binder and presented. I think there were fifteen.
Apparently Mrs. V was not impressed with the poetry. She didn't say they were lousy, not outright anyhow, but the C+ on the poetry portion spoke volumes. I've been back to read them again since, a couple of times. Trying to be objective, overall they strike me as awkward, pretentious, and a little angry in spots. I was pretty mad at God about then. Hey, I was 17...that was probably enough. Lack of writing talent and an unstable situation from which to write made it unlikely that any really good poetry would come out of it. You didn't miss a thing.
But Mrs. V DID love the pictures. the A+ on the photography aspect averaged the whole project grade up to a B+, which eased the pain a lot. Even now, reviewing those pictures from way back then, I'd say there is some pretty decent work..unique, different...there's color, composition, quality, a little drama; some good stuff, even forty years later.
So here I am, thoroughly enjoying modern digital photography, and wanting to present some of my work in similar vein: a picture and a few words, or a vision and a verb, as you say. God and I have since reconciled. He shows me cool stuff. I take pictures. (A co-worker once said how he thought he'd eventually run out of things to photograph. I think I'd wear out lots of cameras before that ever happened!)
But..I haven't learned much more about writing, especially poetry. So sadly, that's out. (You should be glad!)
Yet...there are so many photographs that bet to illustrate, that call to mind a passage of a scripture, or a verse almost says out loud, "Hey, you have a flower that goes with this!". Sometimes it's a struggle to do one a week. Mostly it's not. The two are falling together handily. And as an extra benefit: if I use only His words and not any of mine, I'm never pretentious, overly dramatic, foolish or goofy.
The response has been pretty generous. The 'grades' I get on the photography seem to be about what the high school project got..generally "A"s. And funny thing..nobody has yet given me any "C"s on the poetry!
"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."
-Proverb 25:11
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Special guest post today by Mike Smith – whose beautiful word and image work can be seen over on Flickr . Thank you for joining us here today, Mike, and for sharing with us your thoughtful words and beautiful image.
Reader Comments (15)
I am not one that lives by the bible or am familar with psalms, but the quote here sure is one that is true and worthy to take in. Thanks for shsring this Mike
So interesting how you combined your love of photography and verse into such stunning beauty. I guess we all - at come point in our lives - get to revisit those past experiences and let them go to recreate anew.
Thank-you - Mike - for joining us today. Your pairing of image and quote are simply stunning!
I have followed Mike's series "Scripture Pictures" for quite some time now; looking forward every Sunday morning to each new offering. I think "Mrs. V" would be pleased with both the "Scripture Picture" series AND with today's post. Thank you for joining us today at Vision and Verb! I proud to call you 'friend!'
Mike reading your words is how I started my Sunday morning. You are a very special person.
Hey Mike, I am a huge lover of words paired with photos ... this one you shared is really beautiful. I bet you have been having a blast since the digital cameras and computers came along! Keep doing what you do. All the best.
Chantal - there is beauty in Psalms that everyone can enjoy:) Marcie - my pleasure indeed, and thanks again. Sue - hopefully I'm just getting started! I appreciate your encouragement and friendship. George - Prov 27:17 !!! SusanMarie - yes, it's a great "focus", glad you like it.
High school poetry. High school anything -- we were learning and we were trying and we were learning for self-expression. I could never reconcile myself (and still cannot) as to how a teacher can grade someone on their poetry, their self-expression. The wonderful thing is that you discovered poetry is not for you but photography very much is.
Well, I very much think your photo and post deserve an A+ today. As Sherry above me said, high school is for learning. I think it's hard to express ourselves when we don't really know who we really are yet. Well done and welcome here today!
"God and I have since reconciled. He shows me cool stuff." Wow...what a powerful, powerful statement...love this..could be the first sentence of a book...the photo is beautiful, too, but I see a fascinating story here too...good stuff!
Many years ago I tried to combine photography and words - and utterly failed. Your post today motivates me to try again - older and, hopefully, more mature. Thank you for that.
hi mike, nice to see you here and what a beautiful picture. was thinking about your friend's comment - eventually you'll run out of things to photograph - got me thinking, it's all about our own unique eye isn't it; i don't think one can ever stop seeing beauty in our every day worlds, i know i am always struck by the things in nature, have to pull over the car just to look at light on a particular tree. i don't see that ever stopping - not just the wonders of nature, but so much around us that is ever-changing. it just takes stopping and looking doens't it.
Very nice writing, thanks Mike!
Good for you, Mike, to look back on 40 years and come out on this side with an upbeat, postive, objective 'take' on that high-school experience. I love that you stuck with the photography (talk about positive reinforcement) and have found those priceless jewels from ancient writ to match vision and verb. You're an artist after my own heart!
It's not easy to place the vision with the verb. What a wonderful job you did. I really enjoyed your essay, I'll be checking out more of your work for sure!
you made me think of that saying, "a picture paints a thousands words..." we all bring our own interpretations to what we see it think, and those interpretations are as individual as we are. thanks for sharing your lovely view of the world.