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PhotoPlay Christmas: Do You See What I Hear?
“Jingle bells, jingle bells….” The sound of my daughter’s voice came down the hall, accompanied by a nonsensical piano tune.
Just a few minutes earlier, I had heard her instructing her younger brother on the proper procedure for Christmas. “I just need to hang my degradations,” she stated with all the four-year-old emphasis she possessed. Eavesdropping from my office, I laughed and promptly reported her antics on Facebook.
Moments later, I cringed at the shattering of a bulb knocked from the Christmas tree by our cat. I swept it up to the sound of my son’s version of his sister’s song: a jingle bell ringing that only a two-year-old boy can produce.
My Advent has been a listening time.
Each morning, before I’m quite awake, I hear my children retrieve their treats from the Advent calendar. I write and work to a seasonal soundtrack. I listen for my daughter’s voice joining in as my husband and I teach her Christmas carols.
In my free moments, I try to photograph these December sounds.
The hardest thing to photograph
is the sound of the whole world
who opens her arms to ask us in -
Tones and voices, echoes, songs,
these scripted notes uncurled.
The hardest thing to photograph
is the whispered secret,
and laughter – that happy girl
who opens her arms to ask us in.
The photos keep her secrets, they conceal
her story as the oyster hides his pearl.
The hardest thing to photograph
must be all the unseen music
suspended on waves of air that hurl
the hardest thing to photograph
who opens her arms to ask us in.
What are the sounds of your Christmas? This month, we have two opportunities for you to answer that question.
PhotoPlay
Let your ears be your eyes for this Photoplay, and try to photograph what you hear.
- Immerse yourself in the sounds of your world.
- Create images of what you hear.
- Share your images by uploading them to the High Calling Focus Flickr Group by Wednesday, December 28, for a spot in the gallery and a possible feature at The High Calling.
- Be sure to tag your images with “Photoplay 21″ and “THC.”
Random Acts of Poetry
Tweetspeak Poetry’s December challenge is the Villanelle, a poetic form that employs repeated phrases throughout to create a sing-song rhythm. This form, which I've tried for you above, focuses on the sound of the poem, rather than narrative development, a perfect connection to December’s PhotoPlay challenge. Making words into sound is almost as difficult as photographing music.
Join our friends at Tweetspeak in writing a Villanelle. Drop your poem link on the T. S. Poetry Press Facebook Wall by Wednesday, December 28, and your poem may get featured here, at Tweetspeak or Every Day Poems.
Post and images by Kelly Sauer. Used with permission. Kelly is contributing editor of photography at The High Calling.
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