Sunday, March 31, 2013

Pictures, Poems, Prose and Picket Fences



If one picture is worth a thousand words, can one picture inspire a thousand words?

Photo by Hank Kellner

“I can't give you the white picket fence, and if I did, you'd set it on fire.”
Ilona Andrews, Magic Bleeds

Who would?  Not me.

Something in me loves a white picket fence!  Oh, I know the white picket fence is seen by some as symbolic of the ideal American middle-class life—a family and children, a comfortable house and peaceful living.  What’s not to love?

But for me, it’s something more.  I cannot pass a white picket fence without getting a kind of quiet thrill.  It’s a personal enthusiasm, a sort of excitement. 

It all began when I was quite young—perhaps eight or nine years old.  Up the street from our house there was a little cottage.  In front, a white picket fence that held back a profusion of colorful blooms.  The daughter of the house was perhaps six years older than I, and very beautiful—like a delicate flower fairy.  I was enchanted. She treated me fondly, like an adoring older sister.  (My own did not!) 

As these things go, time passed, and of course we went our separate paths.  But for me, that white picket fence that surrounded Laura’s yard became a symbol of enchantment, a promise of wonderful things to come. 

Years later, I discovered that my husband shared my fondness for picket fences and the dreams they conjured.  When he read the poem “Warning” by Jenny Joseph—the one which starts, “When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple / With a red hat….”, my husband said to me, “I want to grow old with you, so we can run our sticks along a picket fence.”  And so it was that this picture of a white picket fence called to my poet’s muse.


Along a picket fence

We ran our sticks along a picket fence
I dreamt of growing old along with you
But fate surprised us both and changed the path
Along which both of us had gaily run.

Now that fence grows older dear than you
Since you were torn untimely from the world
And so I travel lonely down this path
That echoes faintly with your well-loved laugh

Three score of years have passed since we were wed
A score since I have traveled here alone
Who knows how many years I may have left
Before our paths again become as one

                                                ~ Elizabeth Guy


In my book Reflect & Write (Prufrock Press, 2013), another writer’s inspiration produced an entirely different poem coupled with the same picket fence photo.  The poem “picket fences” by Laurel Guido, a 17-year-old student contributor from Lake Bluff, Illinois, uses the unexpected image of a picket fence to which she compares her young love. 

What do picket fences mean to you?


 Coming next week ~                    
Why him?

Also, visit my co-author's blog at http://hank-englisheducation.blogspot.com
See his ten-part series on photo prompts to inspire writing at http://www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/kellner/

                     Another Helpful Source for Inspiration

For more photos and information not included in this blog, please visit http://www.prufrock.com/Reflect-and-Write-P1752.aspx. Reflect and Write contains more than 300 poems and photos; keywords; quotations; either “Inspiration” or “Challenge” prompts; a “Themes to Explore” section; a “Twelve Ways to Inspire Your Students” section; a special “Internet Resources” section, and more. Includes CD with photos and poems from the book. Reflect and Write: 300 Poems and Photos to Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner and Elizabeth Guy (Prufrock Press, 2013), 153 pages, $24.95.




Sunday, March 24, 2013

A Photo and a Poem - One woman's recipe

"Words and pictures can work together to communicate more powerfully than either alone."
~William Albert Allard, American Photographer


Oh, I agree!  Combinations of pictures and words are designed to communicate ideas.  Those ideas can inspire your writing.  Consider the following example.  You could probably sit right down and produce a volume of writing about this combination of a photo, a poem, and a couple of quotes.  Consider it a triple whammy!



 Celebration


“It was a friendly divorce,”
she said.
She raised her glass
and laughed,

I got    the house
               the money     
               the car
               and the kids

He got – the marmalade cat
               and the shaft.”
 
                       
 
”He taught me housekeeping — when I divorce I keep the house.”


     Let’s face it. Sometimes life gets so bad, you just have to laugh.  Or kill yourself.  Personally, I recommend the former.  Divorce, of course, has been around for a long time.  Voltaire, the French writer, philosopher and playwright known for his wit, opined over two hundred years ago, "Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage.  I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient."

     Of course, back in Voltaire’s day divorce was not so common.  Nowadays, divorce seems to be the norm.  But anyone going through it probably feels like a walking cliché.  How appalling.

     I hate to admit it, but it’s all grist for the writer’s mill.  So, here's my recipe:  Take one divorce, add a cupful of humor, and a cupful of belief in a better tomorrow.  Voila!  Lemonade!  (This is actually my mother's recipe.  She kept it in a lidded box along with some doilies.)

Have you ever used artistic expression to deal with tragic loss?


Coming next week ~
Run a stick along a picket fence

Be sure to visit my co-author's blogs at hank-englisheducation.blogspot.com
See his ten-part series on photo prompts to inspire writing at http://www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/kellner/


Another Helpful Source for Inspiration

For more photos and information not included in this blog, please visit http://www.prufrock.com/Reflect-and-Write-P1752.aspx. Reflect and Write contains more than 300 poems and photos; keywords; quotations; either “Inspiration” or “Challenge” prompts; a “Themes to Explore” section; a “Twelve Ways to Inspire Your Students” section; a special “Internet Resources” section, and more. Includes CD with photos and poems from the book. Reflect and Write: 300 Poems and Photos to Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner and Elizabeth Guy (Prufrock Press, 2013), 153 pages, $24.95.


Sunday, March 17, 2013

Making Lemonade



It isn’t always easy to make lemonade


“We’re getting a divorce,” the voice came quietly over the phone.  Unspoken were the quiet tears I knew were being shed.  Despair, anguish, unmitigated pain howled underneath the silence.  I could feel it in my gut.  Palpable. 

I remember all those years ago when I learned of my friend’s impending divorce. How in my mind I pictured a shattered crystal drop, the iridescent shards scattered, sharp-edged, cutting.  Glinting in sunlight.  How could there still be sunlight?

I remember I said the appropriate things.  I offered reassurance, tried to keep things positive.  But oh, it was a hard.  Eventually my friend came through that awful episode and has built a new and even better life.  It knew it would happen that way, just as I knew there was no avoiding the pain of the transition.

Recently, I’ve learned of another divorce, and once again am reminded of that crystal drop.  How can one make lemonade from a shattered crystal drop?  I admit it’s hard.  But it can be done!


 “Love turns a heart to crystal...Much more valuable, but much more fragile.” 
Neal Shusterman

Photo by Hank Kellner

Devastation


There it is
The other shoe has dropped
An elevator plunge
Landing with the force of a nuclear explosion

Divorce!

Abrupt
Final
Like an unexpected death

The end of your life as you know it
Dissolution of a dream
A precious crystal shattered
The breaking of a promise

Moans among the ashes
Children crying out in pain
No one escapes the devastation

Not even the owner of the shoe
Who flies away not noticing
Her own heart is missing

               ~ Elizabeth Guy



When have you had to make lemonade?
Leave a comment and share your "recipe." 

Coming next week - one woman's recipe


See other photo/poem combinations in my new book Reflect and Write, co-authored by Hank Kellner, and published by Prufrock Press www.prufrock/reflect-and-write-p1752.aspx 









Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Opening Doors



“When one door closes another door opens,
 but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door,
that we do not see the ones which open for us.”— Alexander Graham Bell

           
            How true, how true!  I know when my late husband died at the age of 54, I felt like a door had slammed shut right in my face.  I had spent most of my adult life being a supportive wife. His death left me adrift, off balance, and numbed.  I felt as if I was walking underwater.  The weight and resistance was palpable. 

           Finally, I started attending Hospice grief therapy group sessions, and at about the same time I signed up for a memoir-writing course.  The grief therapy group allowed me to meet with others who had suffered a similar loss, which helped each of us to feel less alone.  Meanwhile, in the writing class we were encouraged to keep journals.  Mine was a grief journal, chronicling my journey through what felt like a kind surrealist landscape. I began expressing my feelings through poetry. 

            Then, when I shared some of my grief journal poems with my Hospice group, I was met with a chorus of “Yes, yes – that’s it exactly!”  It was as though my poetry had given voice to their feelings as well. 

            So, I was launched through a new door, headlong down a new path – new places, new challenges, new horizons.  From that point forward, poetry and writing have been central to my days. 

            Here’s an example – a little poem I wrote about doors, inspired by the photograph below, taken by Hank Kellner as we strolled a downtown street one bright summer afternoon.

            


The Blue Door

Right there
In the middle of the city
High above the alleyway
A blue door

A balcony haven
Bedecked in flowers
Beckoning the sun
A promise of warmth
Serenity

Behind that blue doorway
A cool and calm retreat
What secret pleasures
Linger there,
Above the street

Behind
A multi-paned,
Azure stained
Unexpected door

  What unexpected doors have opened for you after another one had shut?  

See this and other photo/poem combinations in my new book Reflect and Write, co-authored by Hank Kellner, and published by Prufrock Press www.prufrock/reflect-and-write-p1752.aspx 


Also, visit my co-author's blog at hank-englisheducation.blogspot.com