Monday 2 April 2018

Searching for Poetry




“The purpose of poetry is to awaken sleepers 
by means other than shock.”
- Denise Levertov, American Poet

Last week, I overheard someone, somewhere utter the words, “I’m searching for poetry.” I don’t remember who, when, where, or why, but the words lodged in my subconscious and only surfaced when I came across Denise Levertov’s quotation. I’d been searching for a theme for this week’s blog post – and suddenly, there it was!  

That’s what I do with my camera – I search for poetry.

I want to do more thinking – and photography – with that thought in mind, but for the time being, today’s blog post is a first run at trying to understand photography as visual poetry. In the same manner, I believe my husband’s quilts are also visual poetry.

For today, here are ten photos than I made last week, each of which is a form of visual poetry.

Nine of the photos come from a Good Friday visit to the newly reopened Canada Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa. What a fine museum! I thoroughly enjoyed my visit, especially because the museum was packed with hundreds of children having a great time.

The only non-museum photo is of Otis, our dear miniature longhaired dachshund, a dog that Bill saved from premature death almost seven years ago. Surely this photo of Otis sleeping qualifies as visual poetry.


I hope you enjoy the photos!

Otis



















2 comments:

  1. The final two images...poems that stay with me. One serene, the other with such energy and movement - disturbing (what is it I'm pondering over, incidentally?)

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    1. Thanks for the feedback! Red steps lead up to the lighthouse at the entrance to the Canada Museum of Science and Technology. The second is a close up of a huge enlargement of some microfibre...or at least I think it is. Signage wasn’t clear. I prefer to think of it as poetry!

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