Monolithic Demagogue

Monolith

Monumental
Immense
Magnficent

Formidable
Immovable
Immutable

Rooted, gravitas

Detached, ponderous

Menacing
Imposing
Alarming

Mendacious
Malicious
Calamitous

Demagogue

Detached Monolith
Geometric Abstraction, 2017

For the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge, Unusual.

This also works for Cee’s Oddball Photo Challenge, methinks.

The first person to post a comment accurately describing the original subject and setting of this abstracted photograph will win a little prize. [Hints: before applying a few filters to the original image, the colours were much brighter and more saturated, and I’ve removed a few identifying elements with Photoshop’s clone stamp.]

I’ve been spending some time — when I can find it — laying out a magazine featuring the photos and words published on this blog. Hopefully, by the end of the summer, the first volume will be published. The winner of this little contest will receive a free copy of the first edition.

This is probably too tough an assignment, but I’ll post more hints in the upcoming days in the comments section, and on the Pix to Words FB page.

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1

alongtheinterstice on Jul 21, 2017 at 12:31 pm
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powerful words in an expression that heighten the mood of the photo

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- 2
  
  Patrick Jennings on Jul 21, 2017 at 4:03 pm
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  Thanks!
  
  The poem started with the word, monolith, or, rather, more precisely, menhir, which is an archaic English word for large, tall stones standing either alone or in groups.
  
  I liked ‘menhir’ but it felt too obscure, so I fell back to monolith, but not before looking for other possible synonyms which I could relate to the image. The synonyms themselves had their own power, and the poem began to take shape with them.
  
  The darker words began coming when I realized that there was something ominous in a floating monolith … and a little dangerous. Those words eventually lead to demagogue.
  
  This is the image I began writing the poem with. I’d already experimented with darker, more somber versions of it, and when the poem went that way, well, I decided to take the image that way as well.
  
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    alongtheinterstice on Jul 21, 2017 at 4:31 pm
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    thanks for the explanation, the process of how a poem develops, which changes from one to the next, is always fascinating to me. On occasion i use the synonyms of a word to give a way in to the poem “asking to be written.”
    
    Right now I’m facing a similar issue with an obscure word, krummholz, which is the name for the tree that stunted twisted and warped by winds and cold.
    
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    - 4
      
      Patrick Jennings on Jul 21, 2017 at 4:44 pm
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      Ooohhhh! Good word!
      
      Wish I’d known that word when I’d written this: Tenacity.
      
      Is there a word for it when the tree is wind and heat and cold, as in the desert?
      
      And… yes, I often use that process myself, either as a way in, or simply to find the subtler meaning which is “asking to be written”, as you so deftly describe it.
      
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      - 5
        
        alongtheinterstice on Jul 21, 2017 at 5:20 pm
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        don’t know of a word for the desert tree (kummholz trees are formed in part by the snow at the lower part of the trunk that keeps it protected from the icy winds). but i’ll probably search the web to see if there is one. 🙂
        
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        alongtheinterstice on Jul 21, 2017 at 5:49 pm
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        doesn’t seem to a specific word, but there is the juniper which seems to twisted naturally (reasons unknown), but since krummholz is German for twisted word, one could refer to it as a desert krummholz. 🙂
        
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        7
        
        Patrick Jennings on Jul 23, 2017 at 10:37 pm
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        🙂 I like that!
        
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    - 8
      
      Patrick Jennings on Jul 21, 2017 at 4:46 pm
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      Oh, and, yes also to being fascinated by the process of bringing words to the page. It happens in oh-so-many ways.
      
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9

Dancing Echoes on Jul 21, 2017 at 1:35 pm
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Looking forward to your magazine! I know it will be great.
Whatever it is it looks soft, like cushion or pillow from a bed.

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- 10
  
  Patrick Jennings on Jul 21, 2017 at 4:07 pm
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  Yer on the right track-ish. Kinda. See the other image above.
  
  Thanks on the encouragement for the magazine. =)
  
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11

Dancing Echoes on Jul 22, 2017 at 10:50 am
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Your phrase “The darker words began coming when I realized that there was something ominous in a floating monolith … and a little dangerous.”

Ah yes, some of us are old enough to remember when 2001 A Space Odyssey was first released. Monoliths do give a sense of ominous power.
I use a soft, flat, monotone voice much like that if HAL when I want to freak someone out -or at least get their attention.

And I still don’t have a clue what your photo is which I think speaks to its success.

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  Patrick Jennings on Jul 23, 2017 at 10:36 pm
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  “Dave, I’m going. I can feel it.”
  
  <grin> I may have to post the original before anyone will have a clue, but it will still baffle most, methinks.
  
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  - 13
    
    Dancing Echoes on Jul 24, 2017 at 3:03 am
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    Hahahahaaa!
    
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14

Cee Neuner on Jul 24, 2017 at 10:36 am
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Terrific odd balls for this week. Thanks 😀

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  Patrick Jennings on Jul 24, 2017 at 10:41 am
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  You are most welcome!
  
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