Rather Wood

Part of this editing gig is taking pictures.  While I could grab something from the internet, we don't need to ask permission to use our own photos.  This gives me an excuse to get up from my computer and go for a walk -- and man, it's a hot one, a good time to be walking.  There's only one problem:  I'm not a photographer.  All I have is my phone, the three-by-three grid on the camera display, and a vague understanding of something called the rule of thirds.  Oh yeah, and my music.  Can't go for a walk without a soundtrack.

One of the things I've been working on is the Poetic Places Fredericton app.  A poem by Kathy Mac about the Bill Thorpe Bridge is going live soon, so we needed pictures of the bridge.  The photos needed to be a wide shot and two close-ups, but those were the only directions I had.  I might not know much about photography, but I think I know a little about writing.

​So I get down there, find a good spot on the walking trail, and take this picture:

Alright, good start, a nice wide boy of a long boy.  Now the obvious close-up is this next one:

So what we have here is probably the right answer:  wide shot of the bridge, close-up of the memorial.  Seems like an open-and-shut case.

Well, yeah, but it's boring, and obvious, and a little too much like what the tourism board would want.  And we're not Fredericton Tourism, we're a Poets' Archive, man!  That's a story for Heritage Minutes!

So I keep walking, looking for basically anything that isn't this plaque, and I notice for the first time that the trail doesn't just go up onto the bridge access, but downwards.  I find this:

This homely nook under the bridge is exactly what I'm looking for.  In that little ridge between the bridge and the support is an abandoned red gym bag.  There's a trash can for cigarettes on the ground from the city.  The view is much less romantic from behind those trees.  It's moist.  It's a mess.  It's perfect.

I have a tendency to ignore good advice.  Or rather, I don't like the obvious answers.  I've done the creative writing program here at STU, and I've gotten a lot of good advice, but I've also ignored a lot of it.  Not because my peers are wrong, but I already thought of a lot of their feedback.  I don't think I'm better than that advice, especially since that stuff would probably make my writing better.  But I don't know, man, wouldn't you rather be Ed Wood than Paul Greengrass?  Wouldn't you rather make Plan 9 from Outer Space than Captain Phillips?  I'd rather do something nobody else thought to do or actively chose not to do rather than just make something correctly.

I'd rather everybody see this monument:

Now that's ambition!

Step mightily,

Jamie Evan Kitts

(P.S., the soundtrack to this excursion was Secret of Mana: Resonance of the Pure Land, a free triple-album from OverClocked ReMix.  Dad wouldn't have much to say about that.)