This week I feature another amazing photo by Molly Hogan. I know we’ve written about webs before, but this one caught my eye for its uniqueness. Find a detail to focus and meditate on, the punctum (See the quote below). Write a poem about this detail. Could our individual poems be put together to create the complete photograph?
In Roland Barthes’s 1981 book Camera Lucida, he introduces the concept of a photograph’s punctum, which can be defined as the sensory, intensely subjective effect of a photograph on the viewer, or as he puts it: “that accident which pricks me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me).” Barthes contrasts the punctum with the studium, which is the more general approach to a photograph informed by historical and cultural experiences. Choose a personal photograph and meditate on the specific conditions, feelings, and circumstances behind it. What do you feel and know from looking at it? Then, identify the precise detail in the photograph you are drawn to—what is it exactly? Using your senses, write a poem that centers and delves into the punctum, the precise detail. What does a detail reveal about the whole?
From The Time is Now Weekly Writing Prompt from Poets&Writers
Molly posted the photo on Twitter, and Linda Mitchell responded with a small poem that can start us off.
I chose to focus on the fulcrum that binds the web to the marsh grass.
Silk arrow,
Margaret Simon, draft
a fulcrum balance
for delicate lace.
Due to the aftermath (no power or internet) of Hurricane Laura, I am posting this for Poetry Friday. We fared well through the storm and have recovered for the most part. Please keep our friends in Lake Charles, LA in your prayers.
Please leave a small poem in the comments and respond to other poets.
Reflections on the Teche 
I just love this photo. Our Molly is so talented.
What a beautiful thought of that fulcrum balancing lace…pretty.
I’m so glad that you made it through Laura. I hope you could feel my long distance hugs.
Molly’s photo is a masterpiece. I love both your poem and Linda’s.
I have been thinking of you during this stormy period, Margaret. I saw Molly’s photo and sighed-such beauty.
I crafted an image poem to celebrate the beauty of nature’s artwork with this poem:
sunrise surprise
delicacy intricacy
nature’s artistry
I will send the photo that wants to be a poem via social media with thanks to you for sharing and to Molly for capturing this double intricacy of silk.
-Linda’s response in a swirling image is beautifully constructed.
-Your poem is a wonderful example of a “sensory, intensely subjective effect of a photograph on the viewer”.
Thanks, Carol. I always appreciate your kind words. This photograph is witness to “nature’s artistry.”
I saw Molly’s picture, amazing capture. And I love the idea of spiders hanging in there on such a precarious perch! I’m so glad you are okay, Margaret. I followed the map & thought you might be inundated with the rain & wind, but on the edge, too. Whew, what a week it has been, like so many. . .
When I saw Molly’s spider web images I was so taken by them, I asked her if I could use them for future art. I like the levered balance in your poem.
Here’s my poem:
lacework-webs of
power transport our
imaginations…
So glad you are all okay, sending more positive thoughts for friends and family.
From Issa Haiku today:
this world–
the silver dewdrops
aren’t lying
白露のてれん偽りなき世哉
shira tsuyu no teren itsuwari naki yo kana
The shimmering dewdrops are telling the truth about life (from a Buddhist perspective): nothing abides.
Thanks Mary Lee, I find this poem as comforting as lavender lotion.
I saw Molly’s photo on twitter – and loved it, too. I missed Linda’s response. And yours, too. So I’m so glad I could see them both here. (And others.)😍 And I’m so relieved to hear you weathered the storm safely.
Here is my quick response;
duo of dewdrop doilies
adorn the dawn
Love the alliteration and “adorn the dawn.” Thanks for stopping by.
I’m so glad the storm spared you. The forecasts were pretty terrifying.
Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
I loved the photo because of my appreciation of the often under appreciated spider. And, the poems here capture the beauty of the web.
Here is my attempt.
delicate webs
spun of fragile stems
silent prayers
Oops, should be on fragile stems.
So glad you’re okay! Here’s mine. The part that amazes me is how we can focus on something until everything else blurs away…
each strand shimmers diamonds
the real world blurs
into a jewel-box background