Old Snaps And Poetry

Last week I shared a Gogyohka Poem titled 'Old Snaps.' It sparked reader interest and prompted me to further explore the notion of old photographs and the poetry connection they often evoke.

I recalled a poem from one of my poetry heroes, Michael Rosen. The poem is titled, 'Going Through The Old Photos' and is contained in Michael's famous anthology of narrative verse, 'Quick Let's Get Out of Here.' I actually own two copies of this book, just in case I misplace one.

Here is Michael Rosen reading his poem.

U.K songwriter, activist and poet, Billy Bragg recently published a song- 'Ten Mysterious Photos That Can't Be Explained.' The song prompted me to look through my photo collection and dig out some of my mysterious photos. It wasn't too hard.

Here are a few of my mysterious photos that can't be explained. They most certainly provoke speculation and lend themselves to the assignment of suitable words...

This photograph of a group of unknown beach goers prompted some speculation in my notebook.

Finally, this poem from my anthology, 'What The Poemster Found' which was prompted by an afternoon spent rummaging through a large box of old family photographs. It had me swirling in memories.

Never the Whole Family

Rummaging through a box of old photographs

Images from the growing years

My days of greyscale memories

Snapped with stories attached

Images from the growing years

My sister, me and a kangaroo

Mum and Dad at Blackburn Lake

My days of greyscale memories

Seated on my father’s lap

Mum holding my sister, the baby

Snapped with stories attached

Sub groups of a larger family

Never the complete set.

Alan j Wright

From: 'What The Poemster Found.'

It is Poetry Friday and this week our host is Buffy Silverman.

Be sure to check out Buffy's special post.

'My favourite picture of you

Is the one where you're staring

Straight into the lens

It's just a Polaroid shot

Someone took on the spot

No beginning, no end.'

Guy Clark

My Favourite Piture of You

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York. I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co...

Peter Dixon -Teabag Poem

Today I'm highlighting the poetry of Peter Dixon. Peter Dixon was not just a poet. He was a performer, educationalist and artist. He grew up in London during WW2, and as a boy his schooling was far from successful. He struggled with spelling and the understanding of word, form and grammar, so he tended to write secretly at home, drawing and writing of things largely ignored by schools. Despite this difficult phase of his life, Peter eventually became a school teacher and then a senior lecturer in education. It often mystified him as to how all of this came to pass. As a teacher, he strived to be unbiased and did not neglect the children who experienced learning challenges. Peter Dixon became a full time children’s writer and educational consultant. His first book was published in 1978. Whilst living in Winchester, Hampshire, with his family, he contributed to over 100 poetry anthologies and had seven collections of his own work published including Grow Your O...

Poetry Friday 'Storm On The Island' Seamus Heaney

Given the fact that we recently celebrated St Patrick's Day, it seems appropriate that I take this opportunity to continue the Irish focus and recognize one of Ireland's leading literary figures... Seamus Heaney was born in County Derry in Northern Ireland in 1939 and died in 2013. He became a multi award winning poet. His first collection of poems, 'Death of a Naturalist' appeared in 1966 and helped to establish Heaney as one of the major poets of the 20th century. From that first anthology, I have chosen 'Storm On The Island.' This poem tells us about the stoic resistance of people and structures to an incoming storm. The island is not named. Poetic scholars believe this is a poem that can be taken literally, as a monologue on the life and attitude of island people facing a storm, or it can be understood as a metaphor of political struggle on the island of Ireland. Heaney knew both worlds. The poems of this first collection are grounded in the soil...

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