Okay, so this is my response to a "poetic license" project I have given myself to try to get my creative juices flowing again. I have written various words on slips of paper that I have placed in a glass bowl, and I will draw one word and create photos that represent my interpretation of said word. This week's word was "blue." I came up with this idea because I was thinking about the labels we give things and how we respond to the world around us when we are suddenly faced with things that don't seem to conform to those labels.
Let me know what you think about this idea -- especially if you decide to try it yourself!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Am I Blue?
Sunday, June 15, 2008
So Busy He Can't Remember
His Own Name
Brad and his partner Chris Rennolds are getting ready for another fundraising/friendraising event for their new theater company, Innovations Theatre Works. We are hoping that Chris will find out any day now who the female lead will be in their first full production in September, Driving Miss Daisy. I took this photo of Brad at their gala on May 16th. I thought it would have been even more appropriate if he had been wearing about 5 other name badges, because I think he was definitely having a Sybil moment when I caught him here ...
Friday, June 13, 2008
Left Behind
The Annual Church Picnic Has Been Moved This Year
The last cheerful strains of Kumbaya
abruptly ended
as the bus doors swung open, setting us
loose in the warm August air.
Just over the balding hill, sunlight
bounced across Legg Lake, silver flashing
like a bag of spilled nickels.
The annual church
picnic had commenced.
It had always been this way – the picnic held
down at the lake, ‘cause ya never know
when a baptism might break
out. I kicked off my dime store flip-flops
and plunged my feet in the cool
water, dozens of kids fanning out across the park
for hide and seek, and furious
rounds of capture the flag.
The adults busied themselves with grilling
hot dogs and talk of God, and no one
noticed when Bobby Lopez dropped
his G.I. Joe into the water and followed
close behind. Some of the older
kids had been exchanging
dares, and that was why my brother John
had set out for the buoy in the middle of the lake.
No one really thought he’d make it all that way
as his hands slapped the gentle
waves again and again, but there he was
inching slowly toward the bobbing red marker.
When he finally made it to the center
of the lake, it took a few moments
for everyone to realize his shouts were
not cries of joy, but fear
and sorrow. He tried to lift
the buoy from the water but sunk
beneath the weight, and I held my breath
as someone nearby whispered
“My God, is that …”
All around me feet were pounding
a frenzied rhythm and people were flinging
themselves into the lake, splashing like
dying insects along the water’s edge. I made my way
through the crowd in time to see
the lifeless body placed into his mother’s arms,
JESUS LOVES ME!
splashed in big wet letters
across his chest. Hot dogs burned and stuck
to the grill, as the congregation
of the First Baptist Church
stood silent, watching as his mother wept.
Tina M. Harris © 2007
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Visiting Across the Back Fence
Despite a few brief days of really lovely weather back in February, these last several months have been cold and gray so often that it makes the (allegedly gloomy) weather in Seattle seem positively paradisical. Seriously, I am beginning to have doubts that winter is ever going to end in Central Oregon. Okay, so it IS supposed to be in the 70s tomorrow (at last), but man this has been a long, cold, dreary, depressing spring ... I liked this photo because it is a little shot of color to brighten the day -- something we all need from time to time!
Friday, June 6, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
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