On, In, and Around Mondays: Reclaiming the Practice of Cloud-Reading

"How *do* you do it?" she emailed, with a little wink.

My friend was referring to a photo of one thing that suggested the shape of another.



I loved her question, because it made me ask... how can this happen more, and purposefully?

Thinking back on my camera travels for the week, I answered her, "Maybe we can reclaim that childhood practice of reading the clouds."

You remember that, don't you? How you used to lie on your back and find a dragon; a dog eating an ice cream cone; or the ice cream cone alone, melting across the blue?

I realize I am actively doing this with my lens. Rather than simply snapping a "nice picture," I'm spending time with the subject and looking for shapes within shapes. A Georgia O'Keefe practice, I suppose. Suggestive, yes. And, I believe, loving.





This practice can be for the writer too. It helps develop a way of seeing. And before we know it, we aren't just reading the clouds, we're writing the dragon-clouds too.

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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...

On, In, and Around Mondays: The Power of Presence in Photos & Writing

"It has presence," I said.

I was trying to explain why the photograph worked.

A few days later, I was reading Edward Hirsch, and found this: "Poems are presences."

The two events have been on my mind all morning.

What gives a sense of presence?

I look at the photograph of the purple wildflowers, taken at the side of the horse trail. I had to bend all the way down, get impossibly close to their tiny selves to get that shot. I believe *proximity* is one element that gives the photo a sense of presence.

The green flowers on the counter (below). My daughter brought them in from a walk. She'd noticed their intricacies and thought I would find them beautiful. I did. The light on the counter was lovely, so I placed the flowers there and went to get my camera. Of all the shots I took, I realize this one is best because of the angle: it implies a sense of approach, a coming upon. Yes, then, a presence.



The trees are so much further away. Can presence be found at a distance? I think it can. The angles of the trees, the shadows, the subtle standing-over (I was on a hill, and took the shot downwards), these all imply encounter, aliveness, presence-to-presence.



I want to make my poems be presences, like Hirsch claims they are. I want to make all my writing have presence. I am thinking this morning about the photographs. What do they have to teach me?

Proximity, point-of-view, angle, framing, contrast. Harder, for me, in words. I must create and recreate images, as if I am that woman on the horse trail, showing you—for the first time—the purple wildflowers whispering near her toes.
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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...