Picture Poems: Volume 1

By Thomas G. Reischel

Synergy of Image and Verse. 

A photograph is worth a thousand words. Poetry paints word pictures using poetic imagery. On their own, they each are exquisite. Combined they become something else - a powerful composition that blends the best of both. That is what happens in this book. The autho

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: Apr 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781648958441

Thomas G. Reischel

The author was born on 9/11/1948 and raised in Minnesota. He resides with his wife of 40+ years in its Capital of St. Paul, Minnesota. So, his pictures and tone carry a Midwestern sensibility and leaning. He has been writing poetry since he was a freshman in high school, when he had to write one as a class assignment. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, with a BS in Business. He has been a top ranked poet on the FanStory site since 2011, with over 2000 Poems posted there. In 2015, he judged the poetry for the VOICE of KANSAS, Poetry Contest. He has over 900 photographs published on the Capture Minnesota website, an affiliate of Twin Cities Public Television. He has an acclaimed photograph in the 2012 One Life, Photo Journal. His Poem, "Enlightenment from the Merry-Go-Round", is published in Preston McWorter's book, Seeds of Enlightened Society. He worked for over 40 years as a purchasing manager for a large defense contractor, but is now retired. An avid Minnesota booster, he also lived in Colorado Springs from 1985 until 1991, and in St. James, LI, New York from 1991 until 1996. He has published 3 other books of poems in a series -Picture Poems, Volumes 1, 2, and 3. as well as a 4th book, Take Flight, The Sonnets. His 5th book is Animated Stills: Poetic Pariadolia.

Book preview

Picture Poems

Volume 1

Thomas G. Reischel

Picture Poems Volume 1

Copyright © 2022 Thomas G. Reischel

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Stratton Press Publishing

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in the work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Shutterstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-64895-843-4

ISBN (Ebook): 978-1-64895-844-1

Printed in the United States of America

Dedication

To my loving wife, Karen, who has been my guiding light, and to all poetry lovers everywhere.

Introduction

This book is the first of three volumes of poetry, each containing a set of fifty photographs joined with fifty associated poems of various styles and formats. I have combined here my talents of photography and poetry that I hope you enjoy reading and viewing as much as I enjoyed creating them. I can’t wait to present them to you here. But first, I’ll begin with a discussion of my purpose and a short poetry primer.

I believe that photography and poetry go together well. One form paints a visual picture while the other creates a poetic image. Together, the synergy becomes very powerful. At least, that is what I hope I have achieved here. This book contains both. All the photographs contained in this book were taken by the author and the poetry was also written by him.

The author resides in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. The photos were all taken within the state. So besides the aesthetic journey, he hopes the book also provides the reader a bit of information about the place that is his home.

Besides the poem itself, the author will typically add author’s notes. These notes generally try to provide three bits of information. First will be a comment about the poem itself. Second, a description of the poetic format is provided. Finally, the author may comment about the photograph. This is provided to be informational. It may be redundant or unnecessary for some. Those individuals can skip over what they want, part or even all of the notes. They are there for those who appreciate them.

So this book is really meant for several types of readers. There will be those who merely want to see the photographs. I think that is wonderful and hope that my photography is sufficiently good enough to satisfy their craving. Others will just like the poetry. Again, although I don’t purport to be an expert, I hope that I have at least accomplished some success and have whetted their appetite for more. Some may want to focus on style and format, and I believe this book should appeal to them as well.

The chapters have been organized by the category of photograph for the picture lovers, then in alphabetical order of the poem’s title. There are chapters with animal/wildlife, birds, flowers, gardens, sunrises, and sunsets to please the eye.

The author doesn’t claim to be an authority in these areas, so please allow him a bit of poetic license.

For those who are new to poetry, I need to give a bit of information that may help you understand poetry better. This is necessary because I refer to these standard forms of poetic schematics frequently within my author’s notes. So this section is intended to help a reader grasp the references adequately, not be a detailed poetry education. This is fairly technical, but I’ll try to explain it as simply as possible. I didn’t invent this system; it has been around a long time.