{"id":37839,"date":"2021-11-19T01:21:14","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T09:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=37839"},"modified":"2021-11-18T16:46:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T00:46:00","slug":"poems-and-photos-meld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2021\/11\/19\/poems-and-photos-meld\/","title":{"rendered":"Poems and photos meld"},"content":{"rendered":"

For anyone who has thought about publishing their own story, poems, photos, artwork \u2013 really, anything they have created \u2013\u00a0The Gate and Other Poems on a Life\u2019s Journey<\/em> (FriesenPress) should be an inspiration to just do it already.<\/p>\n

This book of poetry by Winnipeggers Doug Jordan, with editing and photography by my cousin Sidney Shapira, is a wonderful example of what we are capable of creating when we stop thinking about maybe doing something and act. It also affirms the benefits that can be reaped by working with someone on an endeavour, not only for encouragement but for holding ourselves accountable to whatever vision we may have, and bringing it out of our heads and into being.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>In Shapira\u2019s introduction, he acknowledges that Jordan\u2019s target audience for this collection is his family, friends \u2013 in particular, friends who had also lived on the Shilo army base, near Brandon, Man., as kids \u2013 and former students. While this is probably the audience who will most revel in this publication, there are poems that will speak to everyone, about love, work, grief and other universal themes. They date from 1965 through to 2021.<\/p>\n

Shapira has thoughtfully chosen photos of his that would complement various poems \u2013 all in black-and-white, to match the sombre mood of Jordan\u2019s writings. The collection doesn\u2019t leave readers in a sombre mood, however, perhaps because of the rhyming, which may not suit everyone\u2019s tastes. Jordan explains his choice in a note at the end of the book:<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy poetry that rhymes and has rhythm,\u201d he writes. \u201cIt is easier to read. Most poets prefer a form of free verse and their message is completely lost to many of their readers as they try to uncomplicate the poet\u2019s words. This is when, as a teacher, we often hear \u2018I hate poetry.\u2019 No wonder. They can\u2019t understand it, and don\u2019t get me going on Shakespeare and others of that ilk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say, if you are a poet and have a message or a story to tell, try do so in its most understandable terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t confuse rhythmic with simplistic. As Shapira notes, \u201cDoug\u2019s poems never meet his own standards after one draft; for example, \u2018The Streets of Copenhagen\u2019 took 10 years to achieve \u2018finished\u2019 status.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gate<\/em> truly represents a journey \u2013 one to which all of us can relate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For anyone who has thought about publishing their own story, poems, photos, artwork \u2013 really, anything they have created \u2013\u00a0The Gate and Other Poems on a Life\u2019s Journey (FriesenPress) should be an inspiration to just do it already. This book of poetry by Winnipeggers Doug Jordan, with editing and photography by my cousin Sidney Shapira, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[21023,2747,21021,387,21022,4048],"class_list":["post-37839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-doug-jordan","tag-photography","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-sidney-shapira","tag-winnipeg"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}