Friday, March 27, 2020

Wild Fridays #12: Roving the Web


Saying it with pictures

How many of us search the net for images to put with our poems? It makes a post more interesting, doesn’t it? I’m always amazed how our masters of romance, Robin and Sanaa, always manage to find the perfect image for every poem – albeit their styles, and hence the illustrations also, are very different.

Others (like me, when possible) use their own photos. The ones that spring most immediately to mind are those our Magical Mystery Teacher regales us with. I’m always blown away by their skill and beauty. (Me, I live in such a beautiful part of the world that I don’t need to do much more than point and click, and maybe the occasional bit of digital editing.)

But sometimes I don’t have anything suitable in my own photo library, and have to go hunting. Many of the supposedly free picture sites aren’t really all that free – there may well be a copyright fee. However, that’s usually small enough to afford easily. 

[A potential trap is that the fee may cover only a limited period of time. I once thought I was paying to use an image forever, only to find it slapped with a nasty sticker right across it after a month. The owner had not made it obvious – it was in VERY fine print – but apparently I was supposed to keep renewing the payment. No thanks! You think I’m made of money??? I found one of my own photos after all.]

All this preamble is leading to the welcome news that ‘Paris Musées, a collection of 14 museums in Paris, recently made high-res digital copies of 100,000 artworks freely available to the public on their collections website. Artists with works in the archive include Rembrandt, Monet, Picasso, Cézanne, and thousands of others.’

What a treasure trove, eh? The one pictured here is Monet’s Sunset on the Seine at Lavacourt, Winter Effect, held at the Petit Palais.
 





(If any of you know great picture sites that you’d care to share with us all, please feel free to do so in the comments.)



Other people's poems to love
(and where to love them)

chocolate is a verb

I subscribe to One Sentence Poems, receiving one per day in my email inbox. Which led me to further explore the poetry of someone whose words I particularly liked: J. I. Kleinberg, whose website is endearingly entitled chocolate is a verb.

Oh, the treats I found there! 

I'm particularly enraptured by the cut-up found poems (reminiscent of our Magaly's). Look at this one (very topical) called the monastery




And then go and look at some more! You'll find lots of them by scrolling down the home page.

This is far from the only kind of writing you'll find. It's simply a lovely start in exploring the work. (I want to call it the play.)

I got in touch with J.I. Kleinberg for permission to reproduce her poem. She also allows me to quote her bio:

Twice nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net awards, J.I. Kleinberg is an artist, poet, and freelance writer. Her poems have been published in numerous print and online journals worldwide. She lives in Bellingham, Washington, USA, where she tears up magazines and posts frequently at chocolateisaverb.wordpress.com and thepoetrydepartment.wordpress.com and occasionally on Instagram @jikleinberg.

The art is well worth a look too. I personally was delighted by the many amazing crochet creations – but, again, that's far from her only form of expression.

Vandal Poem of the Day

Australian poet Amanda Joy recently posted on her facebook page this blog publication of this wonderful poem by (Australian poet) Robert Adamson. After I enjoyed it, I thought, 'What is this Vandal Poem of the Day?' (the name of the website). At the About page, I found out that: 

Vandal Poem of the Day (VPOD) is a public poetry project, which brings relevant contemporary poetry to the University of Idaho and the broader Idaho community. A new poem is published on this website every day during the academic year.

They also say:
VPOD encourages people waiting for buses, eating lunch, or otherwise going about their lives, to read a new poem each day on the VPOD website. Further, we hope the poems featured on this site will encourages public conversations about contemporary and enduring topics since the poems are quickly readable, but resonant enough for readers to re-read, think about, and comment on or share using the links at the bottom of each poem.
We operate with these famous lines in mind:
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
-from “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”
by William Carlos Williams

Oh good, you don't have to be attending the University of Idaho in order to enjoy these poems. But can you get them, or at least a reminder, in your inbox each day? I couldn't see a way, but there is somewhere to direct questions. I didn't do that, however, because I found it was easy to follow the site with Bloglovin'. All the Vandal Poems that I've looked at so far, I find utterly fascinating and thrilling.


Publications by our community members

Aw, no-one (well, almost no-one) took up my kind offer to publicise them for you. Is that because they are already clearly visible at your blogs, with links to where to buy them?

I asked Rommy (whose book I already had) to start the ball rolling, and she obliged. Here is the link to her book of stories at Amazon, available in both paperback and Kindle. (And here's a picture of it to whet your appetite.)




I'll jump on the bandwagon and tell you about mine too – because there's a sale on at Smashwords right now, until 20th April, where you'll find something of mine, something of my late husband Andrew Wade's, and a collaboration between me and my poet friends Jennie Fraine and Helen Patrice – all here






To get the discount price, you have to scroll down and click on the book you want. (All these are ebooks only.) 

I also have an
Amazon page you're very welcome to browse and buy from, but no discount happening there at present – though the chapbooks are very cheap. (If you would like to get the paperback of Secret Leopard, you'd do better to ask me, not Amazon, where it's currently unavailable. Or you could get it from Abe Books, at this link.)

So that's how it works, if you'd like to share information about your own books. Simple and straightforward! Just email me the details.

Material shared here is presented for study and review. Poems, photos, and other writings and images remain the property of the copyright owners, usually the authors.

30 comments:

  1. I’ve often thought about this, Rosemary. Sometimes it takes me longer to find an image than to write the poem! Although I have a wealth of photographs stored on my laptop, I often despair at finding one to fit a poem, although I used to head out into the surrounding countryside to find one, which I can’t do at the moment, and the garden has only so much to offer.
    It’s great news that Paris Musées has liberated wonderful artwork.
    Thank you for sharing interesting poems today. I especially like the Vandal Poem of the Day idea.

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  2. Yayyy!!💝 First of all, many many hearty congratulations on your books, Rosemary! I plan on purchasing them in the near future. And second, thank you so much for mentioning me 😃 I love choosing just the right pictures or paintings to go with my poems. It had always been that way I guess. I believe it's important in terms of conveying the mood and tone of the poem. I usually search for them at Unsplash, it is a website dedicated to sharing free images.

    I loved the work at "One Sentence Poems," and spent a few minutes reading there. I particularly adore the poem "Days," by Lynn Finger. It speaks to me about the fleeting nature of time and how it becomes lost into the tide.

    I went ahead and began following Vandal Poem of the Day on Twitter since I couldn't figure out how to subscribe to their blog.. there is some really amazing talent there!😃

    Thank you so much for sharing, Rosemary! A wonderful start to my day!💝 xoxo

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    1. Thanks for letting us know about Unsplash. I've wondered where you find those wonderful images.

      I love that Lyn Finger poem too.

      Ah yes, twitter is of course another option. (It's just that I found I was never using it so I eventually cancelled my account.)

      Delighted to have given you a joyous start to the day! And thanks for the congratulations.

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  3. Hello Rosemary, Congratulations on your book. I'll certainly be making a purchase - especially as we're on lockdown here, in the UK. Thank you for sharing the news about the works of art coming online. Lots of new information here...perfect to feed my starving brain!

    I've got a couple of books I'd love to share......can I have your email address please?

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    1. It's at the 'Contact Us' tab at the top of the page, but you may have it here too: rosemary dot lifemagic at gmail dot com

      We're now on lockdown in Australia, too. So yes, a good time to catch up on more reading. Thanks for buying my book. I already have one of yours, and will be glad to find out about the other and let the rest of the community know about both.

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    2. Thanks Rosemary! Please stay safe.

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  4. Thank you for the fantastic sources for free images and for the new titles to read or reread (can't ever have enough, can we?).

    One of my favorite sources for free photos is Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/). I like it because all the images are free to use or modified as one pleases.

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    1. Oh, than a gazillion thank yous for sharing the cut-up found poem. I haven't done one in a while. And the time feels just right.

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    2. I also came here to plug unsplash.com...

      I also use Pixabay https://pixabay.com/.

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  5. What a great read this week! I might suggest a search on Google Images opens the door to a multitude of images, and thanks for the Unsplash tip, Magaly. I'll check that out. I co-administer three art challenge blogs, so I often use my own digital art. I've visited One Sentence Poems and VPOD. I can see I'll be spending some time there! Thanks, Rosemary, for the mental stimulation you bring each week. Especially much needed now in this time of isolation, when we're all missing social contact. My son retires today after 30 years as a respiratory therapist. He comes home from work each day physically and emotionally exhausted, and has nothing but praise for his coworkers who will continue the brave fight. Pray for our health care workers!

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    1. Hi Bev, thanks for the Google Images tip. Perhaps your son is retiring just in time to keep him safe! Yes, the health care workers are doing such a great job in so many ways.

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  6. Thank you so much, Rosemary, for your eclectic eye, your kind words, and for taking the trouble to reach out to me. All best, jik

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    1. Oh, that's nice of you! Thank YOU again, for generously allowing me to share you work. Now that I've found your site, I'm going to greatly enjoy following it.

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  7. Thanks for the info on the image sources. I'll be paying them a visit.

    Congrats on publishing!

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  8. You outdid yourself on this, Rosemary. I'll never have a book that would sell. I might finish a memoir with a theme. Parts of it are posted. Two historical novels need to be written but now I won't. I've been retired 19 years and none. Might compile some of my goofy poems for fun.
    Thank you for the list of Paris museum, I've not been to a one of those, they aren't the terribly popular ones. We've been to Paris maybe 10 times for Mrs. Jim and nine for me. Not more for sure, maybe less. Our daughter's job took her to London, with family. We'd visit her twice a year, they'd come to the U.S. for Christmas or other. Once a year it would be Paris for us. Then a couple of times we took a granddaughter to Spain on a mission trip, when they reached age 16. Another time we jogged over there for cheering the London daughter along her way (we did that in NYC too, using the subways for five stops and the finish line),
    My older daughter gave me a hard time for not having enough pictures so I upped it.
    Got to go. Mrs. Jim.

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    1. Thanks, Jim. I envy your trips to Paris. On my only world trip there wasn't time to fit in all the places I'd have liked to visit and that was one that had to be omitted as it would have been a side trip from the main itinerary. Always thought I'd go back some day, but....

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  9. Congrats on your book, Rosemary. :)
    i think a picture can enhance a poetry post in a certain aesthetic way, but you seldom see illustrations in poetry books 😁. Anyway, i like to accompany my poetry post with an illustration, usually from some free photo website like pixabay and morguefile. I also use photos that I took, and there is an extensive library in my PC. I also have the added advantage of able to do sketches on art paper.
    i have a bunch of those'cut-up found poems' sitting at home, they are just newspaper and magazine pages with lines and words black out with marker pens to form entirely different lines. It's really quite fun to do and exercises the mind too.
    Thank you for the heads up to Vandal Poem Of the Day. will bookmark their site. awesome poetry!

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    1. I love your own artwork on your blogs!

      I must have another try at the cut-up found poems. Somehow I don't seem to arrive at such brilliant results as I see others do. Perhaps if I persevered....

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  10. Another Unsplash user here too. They have a pretty nice variety to chose from. I've also searched through museum pages for available art and asked some of my artist friends for permission too.

    I look forward to spending a little time on the sites you mentioned with a cup of tea in hand. And thanks for plugging my book! I picked up one of yours on Smashwords recently, and it's next in my queue. :)

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  11. It's very kind of everyone to congratulate me on my book. I hope I haven't given you the misleading impression that I've produced a new one recently. All those listed at Smashwords and Amazon are at least a few years old – though hopefully no worse for that.

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    1. Just sharing stuff I like, lol. Glad when others like it too and find it useful.

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  13. First, congratulations on your book! This column is so informative, and interesting to read. Thank you so much for sharing your discoveries.

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  14. Rosemary, I appreciate the museum links as I admire anyone that can create beauty when I can barely draw stick figures or finger paint.

    I take the pledge to purchase your books. It may take me a while to finally get off my backside to jump into the publishing world and any advice is welcomed. I appreciate all of your encouragement to my words and maybe they are book-worthy.

    I try to use pictures I've taken or collected from my trail cameras. Others here take your own or borrow excellent pictures from around the sites. Having a right picture paired with the perfect words create a beautiful piece of magic. - Cheers

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    1. I do think your writing is 'book-worthy'. Will definitely do a post on publishing.

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    2. Rosemary, your words are very much appreciated. High praise to any writer - thank you. Maybe I should pull my head out and "get to work" as my father would say. It's about time to really sit at the keyboard and get these words out (even if no one reads them.)

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