Poems in April - Photographic Images Reimagined

Unidentified Woman ca. 1950's - Walter Silver Photographs

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/90070510-e04b-0131-be59-58d385a7bbd0

Congratulations if this is your 28th day of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo).  I fell off the wagon halfway through April, but I enjoyed the ride while it lasted.  I am here to offer those on or off the "April" Poetry wagon a poetic challenge.

These images are free to download and use.   I linked the sites and you are also free to choose one for yourself if these don't inspire you creatively.    

I would like you to interpret your chosen image one of three ways:

1)  Use an ekphrastic writing approach by closely observing the photo. (vivid description)

2)  Create a narrative beyond the frame and reimagine the photo (storytelling)

3)  Interpret or impart an impression of sentiment or promise from the photo

The kiss, Terre Haute, Ind./ Clarence H. White 1904

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.49537/

Inez Milholland - Suffrage parade

About this lady: HERE

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ggbain.11399/

House with trees and clothesline - Walter Silver Photographs

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/63491f30-e905-0131-b25d-3c075448cc4b

Milkyway over Lassen National Park, USA - Thomas Ciszewski

https://unsplash.com/photos/JnY_xqJE230

Play for Me - Ian Dooley

https://unsplash.com/photos/oSq5ejr23so

The Streets (of Brooklyn)

Congrats on Day 14 if you are participating in National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo).  Here is a prompt I hope inspires you today.

The streets of Brooklyn are so interesting to me.  I was recently there for my son's wedding and we had a couple of days to walk around... these are a few photos I snapped and I hope you find one that inspires a poem.

Where is your favorite town or city to take a stroll in?  If you like, please use that as a springboard instead of these photos.  I'd prefer it NOT be nature or the beach.  If you live in the country or rural area, try and recall a visit to a city or town as a child, or have visited as an adult.  Give it your best shot, please write a new poem, post to Mr. Linky below, and visit your fellow poets.

(Chelsea district, NYC)

(Chelsea district, NYC)

Day 27 - Let's Join the Children...

5th gr, 10 yrs, Dog

Congratulations for those of us who have successfully written every day in April!  Today is day 27.

I've always adored children's artwork and I recently attended an exhibit which highlighted some pieces that have received awards this year.  They range from elementary school through high school.  I have not posted their names as it is the internet and I did not feel comfortable doing so, but I was allowed to photograph these images.  Please feel free to write more than one poem but this time I am asking for original poems only.  Thank you.

You know the drill - link up below with your original post (not your entire blog) and be neighborly and visit your fellow poets.

7th gr, 13 yrs, Piano

4th gr, 10 yrd, Frog

9th gr, 15 yrs, Fish in Coral

7th gr, 13 yrs, Kingfisher

10 gr, 15 yrs, Bones

4th gr, 9 yrs, Mars

6th gr, 11 yrs, Rabbits

April 12 - Costa Rica Photos

Costa Rica is the home of my daughter's dear friend, Eva, who started out as a pen pal through a High School English class assignment about seven years ago.  My daughter traveled there last year and stayed with Eva's family and had the time of her life.  I asked Eva to send me photos of her beautiful country and she is thrilled to supply these for our poetry prompt for day 12 of NaPoWriMo 2018.  Her friend took them and we have permission to use them.

The poems can be about Costa Rica but do not have to be.  They are just a jumping off point.  You are invited to write more than one poem.  I prefer a new one, however, will allow a reworked poem - it being 30 poems in 30 days I'm willing to give everyone a little bit of a break.

You know the drill - link up and visit your fellow poets.

Frog-Cups in New York City

Yesterday, I walked home after seeing my doctor. The weather was glorious, and I had just received the best news in my world—after nearly seven months of torture, I could go back to my regular diet! I needed to let some of the happiness dissipate into the streets of New York City before getting home, or my apartment would explode with bliss. Bliss bombs are lethal, I’m sure.

Spring is bright in New York. If you know what streets to walk, you’ll always find flowers and birds’ song painting the season in someone’s yard. I saw robins and crocuses, mourning doves and narcissuses, gangs of blue jays battling over birdfeeders… and when I was almost home, I noticed a tiny plot of frog-cups or Fritillaria meleagris. I love these flowers. And in all the decades I’ve lived in New York, I had never seen one. I accepted the Universe’s gift (the landscaper’s?) and went home grinning and giggling like a proper lunatic.

So… my beloved Toads, what does this mean for our 29^th day of Poems in April? It’s perfectly clear: we will write a new poem that will include a flower named after an animal or a bird named after a flower. It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

Choose your format, but please keep the poem short. I want to read each entry (I’m selfish that way), but accomplishing that gets difficult when the pieces are lengthy.

Frog-Cups (shot rather poorly with my phone)

Play it Again, Toads! #16

"Neapolitan Song" 1929 Oil on Canvas
Joseph Stella

Welcome to the 16th "Play it Again, Toads!" where we revisit archived challenges of this amazing Imaginary Garden.   Choose your own challenge that interests you from the archives on the sidebar (2011-2015) or select from three I've highlighted below.

You may use my photos I am sharing with you here (but certainly not required) - if so, please use the photo with an archived challenge.  Click on any image to enlarge and to see the details more clearly.   I took these photos while visiting the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C.

You may rework old poems or submit original poems and link your specific post to Mr. Linky below.  Please make it clear which challenge you are resurrecting by including a link.  If you share poetry here, please take time to visit and comment on the other poetic endeavors.

1.  Imagined by Ella - Fortune Cookies

2.  Imagined by Kerry - Envelopes

3.  Imagined by Marian - A-Z

"Hibiscus with Plumeria" 1939 Oil on Canvas
Georgia O'Keeffe

"Magnolia" 1895 Oil on Canvas
Charles Walter Stetson

"Spring" 1890 Oil on Canvas
Thomas Wilmer Dewing

Two details of the above image:

"Spring -detail"  1890 Thomas Wilmer Dewing

"Spring - detail"  1890 Thomas Wilmer Dewing

"In the Garden" 1892 Oil on Canvas
Childe Hassam

"June" 1911 Oil on Canvas
John White Alexander

Poem a Day: Creative Walls

Hello Toads, today we are going to play with collections.  Do you have a collection?  I collect tins.

 I recently purchased a book called Creative Walls by Geraldine James.   I am finally going to have a room of my own-my own creative space.   Yes, I can hear Virginia Woolf cheering me on.  In this book there are walls decorated with drift wood, purses, you name it.   Geraldine James started her career as a buyer for Harrods.   She now works at Selfridges-as a home buying manager.  She is passionate about collecting unusual things and decorating her home.

"My passion has always been creating beauty from nothing."
-Geraldine James

  "To produce any art you have to be prepared to expose yourself to judgment, to opinion, to, dare I say it, the whims of fashion. "  

  She invites you to imagine your walls as a blank canvas and create a special altar of your things.  It can be a mood board, a memory, a creation of an imagined vacation, nature collected and gathered and more.    Here are some of her unique collections beautifully arranged.  

You may use her photos- but please credit her work or use your own wall to collect your thoughts and arrange your poem.   If you would prefer a different photo- visit here for more images of her work. 

Poets-you can inspire your muse or arrange your own collection of feathers, seedlings, shells, purses, T-shirts or perfume bottles.   I hope if you are a collector-you will share your style statement with us.  So, gather and sort the flea market corners of your mind, or your great aunt's china cabinet, maybe your grandfather's pipes, or maybe your child collects items in his or her special space.  Draw our eye inward to see your or their creative wonders organized into a poem.  Today only Freelancers-
no rules!