Combining Photography w/ Poetry

<p><strong> </strong><br>

<strong>Overview</strong><br>

I often look for ways that I can incorporate other art forms into photography. In particular, I tend to work with music and poetry. </p>

<p>I am also interested if anyone else would like share their opinions, ideas, experiences, photos in regards to combining poetry and photography.</p>

<p>I have alway enjoyed poetry from Japan, China and other countries in the East. In particular, I have been reading a book on Japanese "Jisei" (Death) Poems. These are poems that are written at the time of death of the poet. The poems can range from being meditative, satirical, passionate, often have natural imagery, and look at the transient nature of life. The concepts of death are usually implied metaphorically.</p>

<p>When I discuss the concept of mixing jisei and photography, I get mixed reactions from Westerners. Often people think the idea is too macabre, others are open to the idea. All of the Japanese people I have spoken with love the idea of mixing jisei poems and photography. </p>

<p>I have also been working with a number of book and styles of poetry, which i have listed under references.</p>

<p><strong> </strong><br>

<strong>Photographers</strong><strong> and Poets</strong><br>

In addition to jisei poems, I enjoy the works of the Chinese poets Li Bai, Du Fu, anthologies of female poets throughout Chinese history, as well as Japanese haiku poets such as Basho, Issa, Buson. </p>

<p>Here is one of my favorite jisei poem, by Kaji Aso, the famous Japanese calligrapher, poet, opera singer, marathon runner, who was an art professor at the Museum School in Boston. </p>

<p>“young boy<br>

dreaming of catching rainbow<br>

becomes rainbow”<br>

<br />Jane Engish is one of my favorite photographers who combines photogarphy with poems. She took the photographs for a publication of the Tao Te Chin by Lao Tzu, translated by Gia-Fu Feng</p>

<p>http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-Lao-Tsu/dp/0307949303/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1358000373&sr=8-2&keywords=tao+te+ching</p>

<p><em><strong> </strong></em><br>

<em><strong>Techniques</strong></em><br>

Typically, I read a single poem or a group of poems, then in my mind, generate basic images of the overall theme of the poem, or capture basic elements in the poem. I then go out and look for those elements in nature and compose a photograph.<br>

For example. I have grouped all of the poems that mention cherry blossoms together. When the cherry blosom season arrives in Boston, I read the poems, then go out and create photos w/ cherry blossoms, then match the images to the poems. Here is a link to some examples:</p>

<p>http://www.dphoton.org/PhotographyandPoetry/Jisei-photograph/Cherry-Blossom-Jisei</p>

<p>I try not to look too hard, but rather let the creative regions the brain naturally work with nature on their own. After a while you build up a mental database of poetic imagery, the process can then become very natural and spontaneous. Sometimes, I will be walking, exchanging breaths with the landscape, when suddenly a scene hits me that reminds me of a poem. <br>

<strong> </strong><br>

<strong>References</strong><br>

Here is a list of books of poetry that I have been working with.</p>

<p>1. Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death <br>

<em>http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Death-Poems-Written-Monks/dp/0804831793</em><br>

<em><br />2. Facing the Moon: Poems of Li Bai and Du Fu</em><br>

<em>http://www.amazon.com/Facing-Moon-Poems-Li-Bai/dp/1882291042/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1357998622&sr=8-7&keywords=li+bai</em><br>

<em> </em><br>

<em>3. New Songs from a Jade Terrace: An Anthology of Early Chinese Love Poetry</em><br>

<em>http://www.amazon.com/New-Songs-Jade-Terrace-Anthology/dp/0140444874/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357998802&sr=8-1&keywords=songs+of+the+jade+terrace</em><br>

<em> </em><br>

<em>4. Women Poets of China</em><br>

<em>http://www.amazon.com/Women-Poets-China-Directions-Paperbook/dp/0811208214/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357999755&sr=1-1&keywords=women+poets+of+china</em><br>

<em> </em><br>

5 The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology<br>

<em>http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Tradition-Haiku-Anthology-Editions/dp/0486292746/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357999811&sr=1-10&keywords=basho. </em><br>

<em> </em><br>

<em>6. The Clouds Should Know Me by Now: Buddhist Poet Monks of China</em><br>

<em>http://www.amazon.com/Clouds-Should-Know-Me-Now/dp/0861711432</em><br>

<em> </em><br>

<em>7. </em>Tao Te Ching, Lao Tsu (Author), Gia-Fu Feng (Translator), Jane English<br>

<em> http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307949303/?</em></p>

<p>I love poetry and I love photography, but (and this is just my opinion) I find combinations of the two to be excruciating. One or the other has to be abused to "fit" to the other. To borrow from Frederick Sommer:</p>

<p>"If we can feel that whatever finally happens was not done at the expense of the thing phogographed, we are O.K. But many things, not only in the arts, not only in photography, but in many walks of life, get us rudely tangled with the awareness that one thing has been done at the expense of another. Something was skinned to the bone; something was absconded with."</p>

<p>Sommer's words are only true if you don't know (and feel) some basics of harmony and counterpoint.</p>

<p>poem and photograph<br>

both intent on capturing<br>

the light and shadows</p>

<p>The idea of combining creative lit with photos is compelling. Together, author and photographer may seem complimentary in some way. There are no doubt photographers that can hold their own as authors, surely as there are those who in some fashion can draw or paint.<br /> I don't know why it is but I like pictures without words. Maybe it's just me having trouble switching media back and forth in my head. I rather not see poetry with photos, especially the <em>equivalence</em> type on adjacent pages.<br /> If the two are kept on either end of the book that’s OK. Most often, either the photos don't measure up to the poetry or vice versa. I expect each to stand expressively complete. They go on the <em>illustrated with</em> shelf. Even the design of the book can suffer. You know, like a photo book suffering at the hands of the graphic artist getting all arty. <br /> This is turning into a rant! I won't even go on about music and photos. Think about Bob Dylan and his singing -- some say neither could, or should really stand alone. That is the only way photos could work with other media.<br>

<br /> Frederick Sommer quote good! Thanks.<br>

<br /> The only example I can think about that I like is:<br /> <em><strong>The Architect's Brother -- </strong></em>RobertParkeHarrison, Twin Palms Press. Saw their show and was blown away! W.S. Merwin has a short piece at the end pages called "Unchopping a Tree" that is complementary to the ideas expressed by the pictures but not <em>about</em> them. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Architects-Brother-Robert-Parke-Harrison/dp/0944092853/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358085598&sr=1-1&keywords=Architect%27s+Brother+Robert+ParkeHarrison">LINK</a></p>

<p><<<<em>I expect each to stand expressively complete.</em>>>></p>

<p>Why? That's often likely to disappoint you. Why not think in terms of their working together, harmony, counterpoint, tension, dialogue?</p>

<p>When you read <em>Just Kids</em>, you may get a sense of what I'm talking about, both between two disciplines such as writing and photographs and even more profoundly between and among more than the individual artist as regards the protagonist couple but also the community of which they are a part. </p>

<p>Even if I do not do it, I see no firewalls between the written word and visuals. In fact, there's an entire genre of art (NOT just in photography) in this category, and it's been around for decades, since John Cage.</p>

<p>Alan, by confessing your exception, you've made me feel guilty ... because I too have an exception. It's <em>A Couple of Ways of Doing Something</em> by Chuck Close and (poet) Bob Holman.</p>

<p>The thing that makes this one work is that Close and Holman worked very closely together. From an interview at the end of the book, Close says: "I was watching <em>The United States of Poetry</em> on PBS, and Bob was on, and I thought, 'I want to know this guy better. I want to get inside his head. I want to be actively engaged with him.' It was not just bringing in somebody to talk about images I made or me just illustrating his poems. So much the better if we actually were at loggerheads sometimes about what the project was going to be about. This is not something to be avoided; this is something to be cherished.</p>

<p>To which Holman responded (in part): "Engaged. Absolutely. ... Chuck had the audacity to see the poem and the daguerreotype as equals." [Close makes daguerreotypes]</p>

<p>Further in the interview, Close talks about how he participated ("meddled" is his word ...) in the wording and even the typesetting. And Holman talks about how he "infused the poems with the subject's own words."</p>

<p>This was a *very* tight collaboration, very specific, very particular in what it was "about" throughout the creation of both the pictures and the poems.</p>

<p>Interviewer Lyle Rexer comments, "So we have two ways of doing something, of collaborating. Chuck's is a collaboration in which there is this self-consciousness that passes back and forth. Bob, on the other hand, had these discussions, interactions, presences to conjure, taking into account what they said, what they resisted saying, and again, Chuck's images. Obviously, the sitters have seen their images,. Have they also seen their poems?"<br>

To which Holman answwers, "Nobody had any problems with theirs, except Chuck." [LOL]</p>

<p>This is a really big, somewhat fragile book, so in sample page-layout images linked below, you're getting what I got by laying the book on the floor and shooting with my little Sony. We are lazy ... [and I would not smush it into my scanner]. You should be able to see the layout and read the text if you squint ... and make allowance for the tipsy-turvy hand-held-iness. Please note that obviously the image quality is gorgeous in the original and not in these little jpgs.</p>

<p><a href="http://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/close_serrano.jpg">Andres Serrano</a><br>

<a href="http://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/close_lyleashharris.jpg">Lyle Ashton Harris</a><br>

<a href="http://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/close_philipglass.jpg">Philip Glass</a><br>

<a href="http://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/close_bobholman.jpg">Bob Holman</a> (the poet who wrote the poems)<br>

<a href="http://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/close_selfportrait.jpg">Chuck Close</a> (self portrait)</p>

<p>If you don't know who those people are, Google is your friend.</p>

<p><<<<em>by confessing your exception</em>>>></p>

<p>LOL. Some opinions do seem like gospel . . . perhaps imposed by a quoted verse or two.</p>

<p>The sin may be to think of limitations rather than possibilities . . . not to mention doing it through someone else's thoughts and words.</p>

<p>Is the photograph dependent upon the poem or is the poem dependent upon the photograph?</p>

<p>Instead of the term "dependent upon" we can substitute others like "linked to" or "complicit with" or "creatively enhanced by", etc.</p>

<p>While these relationships can exist, I wonder if it is not important to recognize the particularity of the message of each to the viewer or reader, to combine images and written words in a contiguous series of photographs and poems, but also to allow each to appear to the reader/viewer, separately, as on different pages of a book, or separated yet on the same wall of an exhibition.</p>

<p>In that way, rather than providing a relationship to the viewer and reader we allow each to suggest something somewhat similar but within a space of its own, such that the reader and viewer can then experience each without intrusion and summon up whatever comes to mind (words or images) in his or her mind. I think that that proposed relationship of two art forms can work better than the simultaneous viewing and reading of both together. Giving each other its space is a general approach that I personally prefer, but I can see artistic exceptions to that, of course. Multi-media or mixed media presentations can be quite powerful when well conceived.</p>

<p>Some of us remember listening to plays or poems on the radio and conjuring up our own images in relation to that. Elsewhere, the importance of viewing the painting before reading the description in an art exhibition has the equivalent of seeing and experiencing a photograph without any description. Any relationship of the two experiences is sometimes rendered more subtely. If I read a poem and am given a visual equivalent or reference, I am somewhat inhibited in forming my own in mind visual reference.</p>

<p>There's the experience of a poem. There's the experience of a photo. And there's the experience of a poem-photo combination. Why we would be looking for the latter to accomplish the same things in the same ways as the former is beyond me. If the poet creates his poem to be accompanied by a visual or decides later that that's appropriate or if the photographer creates his photo to accompany a poem or finds a poem or words later to accompany it, perhaps there is some intimate tie he or she wants the viewer/reader to experience. Maybe one should accept the accompanying photo as a gift rather than a threat to their mind's eye. To me, this kind of critique of poetry/photo collaboration would be like saying music is better than painting because it doesn't supply a picture to the imagination. It doesn't make music better. It makes it different. A collaboration of photos and poetry is different from a photo and different from a poem.</p>

<p>I don't disagree that the two can work together. As I said, shifting gears is the problem. I don't catch the lyrics to music as a rule, I'm always amazed that my spouse knows the words , it seems like, to every song written since forever! I love the sound of Portuguese and Spanish singers -- go figure. Who couldn't like a Gilberto samba? <br>

Thinking about the topic, I am reminded of the imagist poets (Amy Lowell, Wm. Carlos Williams) and photographers (Stieglitz and tons of others). Will look through a couple of books I have on that.<br>

I heard David Lynch say "Why do people want to <em>talk</em> about my films? Just watch them. It's all there." He meant, of course, that they were <em>complete</em> as they were - no words necessary. It's like the <em>director and actor commentary</em> option that comes with some DVD's. If anybody could use some text it would surely be Lynch!<br>

I have said that (for me) pictures should strive to let the viewer go <em>between</em> the <em>text</em> like writing but not require <em>real</em> words as accompaniment. Not that real words can't work, but I haven't tried it. Might be a very cool <em>workshop</em> experience. Any ideas?</p><div></div>

<p><<<<em>Any ideas?</em>>>></p>

<p>Yes. What Lynch was talking about was words of description or explanation or response to his films. Different topic. Stop thinking of words as mere accompaniment. Think of Lynch's (and others') movies as just what we're talking about: a combination/collaboration of words and pictures. Where the words are part of the experience, not about the experience, not an exposition of it or interpretation of it or reaction to it, or an accompaniment. To paraphrase Shakespeare: <em>The movie's the thing.</em> It's got pictures, words, and music, and more, working together.</p>

<p>Now think of text and pictures, as in a good work of documentary, simply working together, both creating the unique experience. And imagine art photos and poetry doing the same thing. Not to explicate, but to harmonize.</p>

<p>Those who have seen photos and poetry work together and provide a more significant experience than either on their own need only to supply examples where that has been done with aplomb. Those seem to be lacking here. A strong photograph may carry a weak poem or a strong poem may carry a weak image, but the results are no better than the weakest link.</p>

<p>Discussing movies is simply leading the attention away from the topic of the OP (which I think is what we call a red herring - a poetic term that can conjur images in the mind if desired) which is quite simply poetry and photography. I might have introduced something like opera or mixed media happenings to support an argument for poetry and photography, but these would also be red herrings. Staying on the OP subject requires either convincing examples of considerable success, or a more convincing thought argument. </p>

<p><<<<em>A strong photograph may carry a weak poem or a strong poem may carry a weak image, but the results are no better than the weakest link.</em>>>></p>

<p>Arthur, it's doesn't have to be about one carrying the other, as if they are two separate entities. It's about a poet and photographer collaborating to create an experience which includes poetry and photos.</p>

<p>I'm not interested in supplying you with examples. I have nothing to prove to you. Philosophy is often about thinking and opening one's mind to possibilities. If you can't or don't want to do that, that's fine. I just thought I'd give it a shot at explaining that poetry and photos can work together, as one experience, not two.</p>

<p>No red herring. Alan mentioned Lynch. I was responding to that. In other words, we're having a discussion, a dialogue. He mentioned that Lynch said it was not necessary to talk about his pictures. I thought, because of that example, Alan misunderstood the concept at hand which was not talking ABOUT something, not a critique of a photo, but text or poetry that is meant to be read with a photo as part of a collaborative work of art. That would be more like the talking that goes on IN a movie than like Alan's example, which was talking that goes on ABOUT a movie.</p>

<p>I have a poet friend and we've discussed collaborating on just such a work. I'll let you know when we've come up with something. I can assure you, if we get it together, it won't be a competition and we won't be concerned with weakest links and compensating for each other. We will be weaving something together, much like a movie weaves together pictures and words and audiences of movies don't usually think in terms of the dialogue carrying the pictures or the pictures carrying the dialogue, at least I don't. The dialogue, music, and pictures are accepted as THE MOVIE, not competing art forms.</p>

<p>By the way, the project with my poet friend wouldn't be about his poetry accompanying my photos or vice versa. It would be a weaving of the two mediums. We haven't got too far into it yet, but some of the things we've loosely talked about are actually alternating stanzas, one in poetry and then one in photo(s), alternating in some rhythmic fashion . . . a sharing, not a carrying, a support, an explanation, or an accompaniment.</p>

<p>Arthur, for me, it made sense to consider the question in terms of what <em>can be</em> done, not necessarily what <em>has been</em> done. </p>

<p>Fred,</p>

<p>I like the idea of working out new ways of weaving the two mediums. It would also be interesting to learn the personal creative process from a poet and then try to apply that process to create a photograph, with or without poetry.</p>

<p>I try to do this with a freind of mine who is a Japanese calligrapher. i will sit and talk to her about the creative process of her work, and look at calligraphy in her gallery, then go out and shoot inpired by the mood created by her work.</p>

<p>Often, my approach is to learn from traditional Asian and Indian methods and apply them to contemporary mediums. But I am interested in completely new methods as well. I have some friends who are Chinese and Japanese calligraphers. I have a vertical panorama of Bridalveil Falls at Yosemite, that I will mount to a silk scroll or Gaku (framed art mounted to silk board), then have the calligrapher paint lines of a traditional poem or her own poem on the print.</p>

<p> Mixing poetry and painting was fairly standard in traditional Asian painting. Even the Japanese poet Basho would paint images to go with his haiku. Soemtime the owner of a painting may even later commission a calligrapher to paint lines of a poem on the painting.</p>

<p>Sensei Kaji Aso at the MFA in Boston was a master at combining text, poems with images. Here is link to the his work. </p>

<p>http://www.kajiasostudio.com/pdf/Endless%20Journey%20Book2.pdf</p>

<p>Another example is my friend, Michiko Imai, who is a Japanese calligrapher, mainly works with painted script. However she will often add a painted image along with the text. Sometimes the text is a single word, idea, phrase or a poem. Sometimes the image may dominate the space, w/ only a few characters, but the meaning and shape of the characters creates a balanced vivid image in the mind, that would be weaker if either were separate ( see "carp climbing waterfall"), sometimes it is the other way around. Here are some examples:</p>

<p>http://www.michikostudio.com/scroll.html<br>

http://www.michikostudio.com/gaku.html</p>

<p>Fred, I am very glad to hear of your project and the manner of interaction of the two media you are seeking is great. I wish you very good luck. My examples of two weak versus strong interactions is just some sort of product my own reaction to much of what I've seen before in the blending of the two mediums of expression. I think that the result of the artistic or communicative (or both) type of blending, or the weaving as you appropriately say, has to be (or should be) one of synergism, where the result is better than a simple sum of its two parts.</p>

<p>Don, thank you for the links to examples, which I didn't get a chance to look at when posting.</p>

<p>Take the two most difficult art forms - <em>poetry and photography</em> - and mix them together. What do you have? Well, besides the obvious "motion picture."</p>

<p>Of course on the personal level, whatever works and is interesting is fair game. Oil painting and sculpture would seem a natural mix. </p>

<p>We have a category of endeavor called "multi-media" (mixed media) and it seems logical that poetry and photography fit that bill nicely. So, there's no social barrier to this thing. </p>

<p>I am usually a little confused by extra long titles or worse, descriptions applied to photographs. "In Crisis and Confusion Man Reaches to His God," was the title of a photograph of a stick poking up through some surf at a recent exhibition. I resented being goaded into that pattern of thinking just by having chanced by the photograph. I felt it was a bit pretentious. Although if the artist feels he must club people over the head, that's his business. I am sure I would have enjoyed the photograph had it not come with a stern warning. In the right mood, I might even an enjoy an essay on the premise. But together?</p>

<p>Anything that pleases the artist is a valid exploration. Adding a lot of words to photographs though may reduce the power of both. </p>

<p>Here is a very slightly different spin on this topic.</p>

<p>Like much of his poetry, Wallace Stevens's "The Man With the Blue Guitar" is about perception and the creative act. I actually handwrite the first stanza in my journal before traveling to remind me that my camera is -- in the poet's metaphor -- a "blue guitar" upon which "things are changed." </p>

<p>I think the poem tells us that the creative act <em>necessarily</em> changes and interprets "external reality" and can elevate the commonplace to touch some over-arching human truths. This -- for me -- is a key connection between photography and poetry. Here is the first stanza of the long poem (and maybe his use of colour also touches some visual nerve in my own mind): </p>

<p>The man bent over his guitar,<br>

A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.</p>

<p>They said, "You have a blue guitar. <br>

You do not play things are they are."</p>

<p>The man replied, "Things as they<br>

Are are changed upon the blue guitar."</p>

<p>And they then said, "But play you must,<br>

A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,</p>

<p>A tune upon the blue guitar<br>

Of things exactly as they are."</p>

<p>I didn't know this at the start of the thread but learned there is a book genre called "Calendar stories". Came across a book by Gerhard Richter and Alexander Kluge - <em>December.</em> Have the book now and like it.<br /> The Richter (I'm a big fan) work has a feeling or mood that corresponds to the text but doesn't demand. It’s a bit beyond decorative. The text is, unusual to me, a notational scribble (translated from German) so more demanding. All in all, a handsome, small book. Good for a gift. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/December-German-List-Alexander-Kluge/dp/0857420356/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359908749&sr=1-1&keywords=december+richter">LINK</a></p>

<p>I am just after finishing my first "virtual book" connecting poetry with photography. The "virtual book" is a big album with poems in even pages and photos (A4 size) in odd pages. It took me two years to complete and is composed of 20 poems and, of course, 20 B&W photos. I did it the following way:<br>

I read a poetry book (Antologia Rota) by a spanish poet Leon Felipe (begining of the 20th century). Out of the book I selected 20 poems that "touched" me more deeply. With some of them I am able to visualize the photo that matches the poem, so the only problem is to look for it (with one particular photo it took me over a year to find it). For other poems I don`t "see" the photo so I keep the poem in my memory and let time pass along. Sooner or later I will come up with and image that matches the poem.<br>

I print a front page with a photo related to the title of the "book" (in this case Canción Rota or Broken Song). Following the front page I print the poems in a single page of photographic paper and mount it using big acid free mounting corners; all the poems in the even pages. The related photo is printed in B&W in Hahnemuhle Fine Art paper using a Canon pigment ink printer and mounted like the poem page. At the very end I print and Index with the title of each poem and the place were the corresponding picture was taken.<br>

After completiing the "book" I have an album with a front page, 20 poems with photos and an index.<br>

This is how I have done my first poem-photo "book". 20 photos in two years. This is a veeeery slow procedure but I am satisfied with the result<br>

Best regards, Gonzalo</p>

<p>Further to Warren's 'Blue Guitar' post, above:</p>

<p>His self and the sun were one<br>

And his poems, although makings of his self<br>

Were no less makings of the sun.</p>

<p>— <em>Wallace Stevens, </em>"The Planet on the Table"</p>

<p><em id="yui_3_7_2_31_1359300105664_58"><strong id="yui_3_7_2_31_1359300105664_55">Gonzalo,</strong></em><br>

If you are ready to show others, can you send a link to the virtual book it sounds really interesting. I would love to see it. The creative process is similar for me. </p>

<p>One thing I have been thinking about are some ways to explore the text-image connection process on really basic level. Calligraphy master Kaji Aso would assign his students a descriptive phrase/task such as "create a painting of the moon behind the trees". The student would come back with a painting based on the text. This phrase could easily be a line from a poem. He himself would often combine his or other's poems in his calligraphy paintings.This is really a basic exercise of exploring connection between words and images. Which is important for a calligraph artist.</p>

<p>Even the calligraphy alone is really just and ensemble of symbolic pictures (pictograms). Artist will often paint the characters in a ways to express a mood or image. One example I saw was a calligraphy of a poem about rain, and the characters were literally dripping off of the page. </p>

<p>Even If you don't publicly intend to show the connection of the photo and a poem, using lines of poetry as sources of ideas and inspiration for a photograph, can be an interesting in process. This method could be use to practice to develop the process so it can become more natural and spontaneous. Some of of the the most famous calligraphy is created in minutes, hours vs days months or years. I like interacting on a improvisation level with a scene, as a musician would improvise. It sounds and feels natural but takes years of practice for the muscian. Kaji Aso's simple exercise would help to develop one's ability to improvisational create a photograph based on a phrase or an entire poem. It would also be a good exercise to help an individual to express their verbal thoughts into a photograph as well.</p>

<p><em><strong> </strong></em><br>

<em><strong>Alan,</strong></em></p>

<p id="yui_3_7_2_31_1359300105664_52">Didn't know about December I will take a look. Thanks!</p>