Like last year, I’m participating in this year’s Month of Poetry – writing a poem every day for January. I said something similar last month when I guest posted over at Problogger, but I do believe the more you stretch and push yourself creatively the more accustomed you become to the exercise. I won’t say it gets ‘easier’ because that’s not quite the right word, but you can get better at it. Above all, like Edward de Bono says, the definition of being creative is bringing something new into the world that has value. That last word is important. It’s a little like this Eddie Izzard joke about creation and destruction:
This brings us to Instagram pictures (and pictures, generally). When we take pictures we should ask ourselves – Why? Why am I taking this here, now, from this angle, in this light? What’s the purpose? What am I trying to depict or represent? A writer tries to do something similar in words and scenes – a photographer can do something similar in a click of a button. It’s why they’re quite friendly mediums. I’m sure you know this already.
Anyway, all of this is to say a lot of my month of poetry poems so far have been inspired by Chantelle’s #janphotoaday meme that I’m participating in and it’s been quite pleasing to marry the two and dwell a little on this overall relationship.
I’m not saying they’re great poems – but it’s a start. It’s something.
Some examples below.
Pawing through bushes
eager to find red prizes –
such as a villain might
search for hearts
in a fairytale –
there they are
hanging in secret pockets:
tomatoes.
You weigh their flesh
upon your fingertips
Warmth spreads, sunned
goodness awaits.
It seems a shame to bite
and you pause
for a second (but no longer)
because, frankly, they are
delicious.
Silver skies
play percussion
on our roof
The haiku isn’t written in the 5-7-5 form I was taught in school. That way is now deigned by more experienced haikuists as being a little outdated because the Japanese onji and an English syllable are not equal. (More info here)(I’m not even sure if my haiku is technically a haiku.)(Poems are hard, y’all.)
I find Instagram photos more accessible to interpretation than other more professional shots like you might find in magazines. The latter are so stylised and perfect, it can be hard to find an ‘in’, a place where you can recognise a fragment or a feeling and then work on developing that. Instagram photographers cover the spectrum of talent and like all social media who you follow will of course dictate what you see. I’ve also seen people be questioned – almost as if it were a crime! – if they’ve imported otherwise shot (meaning DSLR) photos into Instagram and then passing them off as more amateur looking. iPhonegraphy is hotly defended and lauded and I wonder if it’s partly for the reasons I’ve speculated about above. People feel safer, more accepted, more spontaneous and playful, perhaps? Is it more ‘democratic’?
In short: the month has started nicely.
Do you use Instagram? Do you take the time to find connections between what inspires you to write/photograph? Or is spontaneity more to your taste?
