This week I took a deep dive into the vast catalogue of  7000 images trapped on my Iphone. I then randomly selected four that caught my eye and rescued them from obscurity.  I called on their support to help me launch some Haiku poetry. A collaboration of image and inspiration. Thank you team... Brittle autumn leaves                                                                                                                              Skitter along the footpath                                                        ...

I am indebted to fellow poet, Janice Scully from Salt City Verse  , who last week posted her 'Holiday Haikus.'  Janice wrote her haiku poems to accompany three  photographs gathered from a recent holiday. Her poems were ekphrastic poems. Janice's post sparked my thinking... I decided to trawl through my extensive collection of travel photographs and choose three from the archives and link them to some poetry. I consciously chose a syllabic sibling of the haiku, -the tanka (5,7,5,7,7).  I have called the resultant poems- 'Travel Tankas.' The world we wander is increasingly visual. Our smartphones make it so accessible. It is increasingly apparent that there is an interconnectedness between photography and writing. We can use the photographic image to enhance our writing experiences. It makes sense to bring these two dynamic crafts together.  Photographs don't over-ride my need for words, they enhance it... So thank you again, Janice, your post helped launch a mo...

We all have them. Old landscape photographs that fail to register years later. I am often pondering the locations of such images. U.K. singer/songwriter, Billy Bragg has even written a song about 'Ten Mysterious Photographs That Can't Be Explained.' I certainly have a pile of such photographs among my collection that fit that category. I am sufficiently intriguied by all this photographic mystery to write an ekphrastic poem about.  This is poetry of place, even if the place is currently unknown... Landscape, Somewhere A photographic image Of a somewhat non-descript landscape Nothing in this old black and white snap To readily identify where it might have been taken No distinct memory markers No printed signs To satisfy my geographical curiosity A mysterious photo that can’t be explained As Billy Bragg once lamented. It’s just a bland landscape -a stretch of water ringed by a dark and distant forest Some tonal difference But little else The sky? -a grey unbroken mass. Would ...

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...

 As an educator and writer I appreciate the importance of sharing my writing with curious young learners. Their questions are essential in dispelling myths and misconceptions  surrounding writing. But equally important is the sharing of one's process. The journey is important, not merely the end product. The poem I am sharing today, was sparked by a photograph I noticed in a magazine supplement, attached to my weekend newspaper. It's summer in Australia, but to be honest it has not exactly dazzled so far. Some pleasant days intermingled with days of above average rain and skies of gloomy, grey clouds. Maybe my poem is inspired by wishful thoughts... The photo I found portrays a family walking along a beach close to sunset. The light is soft around them. They appear to be having family fun.  My gaze fell upon the words 'summer loving' included in a tourism advertisement on the adjoining page. I immediately cut the two items out and pasted them into my writer's notebo...

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...