I was going to write a blog post today about my non-linear thinking processes, but then I had this great idea to talk about something else instead.
I need a picture of myself to go on the back cover of my book of poems. I could just go stand by a cinder block wall somewhere at work and ask the next person who walks by to for a quick snap, I suppose, but that would be way too simple. I’m not going to do it if I can’t complicate it up.
It has to be quirky. It has to be weird. It just can’t go so far in that direction that my family disowns me. This is pretty much my parameter.
I wanted a picture of me sitting on the porch of the house I grew up in reading Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings. This would be fantastically weird considering the house I grew up in looks like a haunted house now.
My next candidate is me sitting in a lawn chair in front of this really run-down store called Gerald’s Salvage.
Then there is the Sharon exit sign off the interstate. That could be cool, but it lacks any real creepiness.
Real creepiness would be standing under the sign in Laurel that says Hellfighters Love Jesus. I believe I would also have to stand in front of a Church’s Chicken to get that shot.
These are just a few of my ideas. There are plenty more where they came from. Unfortunately, I only have a few days to come up with just the thing.
But a great idea is a terrible thing to waste. I think this will be my new stress relief project, my new blog project, and my new photog project all in one. I can wander around Mississippi with the book One Writer’s Beginnings and take pictures of myself reading it in front of every creepy little small-town scene I can find.
There will have to be a few fruit stands involved. Cemeteries, of course.
Potluck dinners.
A trailer park or three.
A house with some leaning porch steps.
A beauty shop.
I’d sort of like to go sit next to the Faulkner statue on the square in Oxford to read Eudora too.
There’s no real limit, and if I ever scratch up a second book of poems the cover photo will not be a problem.
