Photos with poems

I went to the Grolier poetry book shop in Harvard Square to do research for a new project. In specific I was searching for poems that were written to compliment photos. I’ve been interested in the idea of what non-traditional, more verbose captioning can do to an image.

After some searching with staff, we found Street - Poems by Jim Daniels, Photographs by Charlee Brodsky. The images by Charlee Brodsky are interesting and I liked some of the poems, but stylistically, it’s the same poem repeated over. Maybe that’s what happens when you make a poet write about someone else’s photos. 

Here is a fun one:

This and That

cleavage and curly hair
polka dot and frills
jelly roll and tap dance
turnpike closer and fender bender
bulldozer and lightbulb changer
clout and pout
spit shine and set table
vibrato and glissando
brass and string
hip shake and deer prance
brawn and yawn
planet and star
elbow to hip
elbow to head
placed together, whole