Poetry Challenge #248-Say Cheese!
I’ve got a Nikon Camera/I’d love to take a photograph…
If you remember that song, then you probably recall cameras as something other than an app on your smartphone. You might even, like me, have one tucked into a drawer somewhere… Nikon, Cannon, Polaroid, Camera Obscura!
Well dang, pull out your old box camera—or your big lens—and give it a good dusting for today is National Photography Day. That’s right, every June 15 the North American Nature Photography Association, otherwise known as NANPA, along with millions of photographers go snap happy!
Poetry Challenge #248
Say Cheese!
Find a photo from at least ten years ago (more is better). Study the photo.
If there are people in it, who are they?
What are they doing?
What might they be thinking?
Where is the photo taken? Are there buildings? Trees? Plants? Who was the photographer? Who wasn’t in the picture?
Write a free verse poem telling the story of this photograph.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Still baffled? The song is Kodacrome by Paul Simon. Here’s a snappy version sung by the Muppets!
Click to the Muppets singing Kodachrome
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2000+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #39-Kodachrome
When I think back on all the @#$! I learned in college, a disturbing experiment I learned about in PR 101 floats up: Subliminal Advertising. (Okay, yes, maybe it came to mind because I’m feeling a tad guilty and extremely bloated after devouring by the fistful more than my half of the movie popcorn last night.)
As if Psyco wasn't scary enough . . .
Short History Lesson: This idea of Subliminal Advertising came from a 1957 study by James Vicary, a market researcher who inserted the words "Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coca-Cola" into a movie. “The words appeared for a single frame, allegedly long enough for the subconscious to pick up, but too short for the viewer to be aware of it.
The subliminal ads supposedly created an 18.1% increase in Coke sales and a 57.8% increase in popcorn sales.” As noted in this 2011 article from Business Insider, the results Vicary reported were falsified. But the idea of Subliminal Advertising, that images and words can and do subconsciously influence us, is widely regarded as true. Assuming it is, let the mind-bending commence:
Poetry Challenge #39
Kodachrome
Begin with some Words of Wisdom: select a quotation or adage from a book, the wall, or the Internet—or make up your own. For example:
“The Chief enemy of creativity is good sense.”—Pablo Picasso.
”All cats look grey at night”—Ben Franklin
”The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.”—Steve Jobs”
Now, in a blatant effort to subliminally impact readers—and maybe ourselves—let's hide those words of wisdom within the body of the poem. The trick is to insert the kernels of “wisdom” so deftly your reader doesn’t notice them. How?
Take out an unused piece of paper.
Working top to bottom, write the quotation down the center of the paper—one word to a line. As we are not creating an Acrostic poem, vary the position of the word on the lines.
Now write a poem around the words, thus "hiding" your message in a poem.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
My not-so-subliminal message to YOU!
Kodachrome Playlist:
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge approximately 26 Months, 2 Weeks, 6 Days, 13 Hours, 33 Minutes and 20 Seconds days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem. Scroll down and click on the comments