Poem: Photographs

— In memory of Kaye

I used to be the family photographer,

but you were better at it.

You had the keener eye,

a greater sense of perspective.

So you took possession of the camera,

and I wrote notes on scraps of paper

and stuffed them into my pocket,

where they grew into poems.

My pictures are in my poems,

and your photographs are poems.

I read them often.

Robert Hamblin is an emeritus professor of English at Southeast Missouri State University, where he taught for 50 years and served as the founding director of the school's Center for Faulkner Studies. He is the author or editor of nearly 60 books, including poetry, fiction, literary criticism, biographies and memoirs.

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