Dear President Obama

Dear Mr. President

When you spoke in Baltimore in War Memorial Plaza prior to your inauguration I was impressed that you mentioned a brave African-American, an escaped slave, who as a private in the U.S. Army had his leg blown off by a British cannonball during the bombardment of Fort McHenry, September 13-14, 1814 when Francis Scott Key wrote the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Pvt. William Williams, slave name Frederick Hall, died a few weeks later at the Baltimore public hospital. In my capacity as a historian of the War of 1812 I have written about that brave man, Although African-American men in that period were forbidden by law to serve as fighting men in the U.S. Army or state militias, he was light enough to pass as a white man. (See "Escaped Slave Made the Ultimate Sacrifice at Fort McHenry" by Berry Craig.)

By contrast, at sea, this was a golden period of opportunity for blacks. We believe about one-fifth of men in the U.S. Navy as well as aboard American privateers and merchant ships were African-Americans and we know the stories of many of these men.

As you will know, the British on August 24, 1814 defeated an American army of mostly militia at Bladensburg. It is possible that Pvt. Williams was in that battle as there were several hundred U.S. Army regulars in the battle, fighting with D.C. militia, U.S. Marines, and the sailors of Commodore Barney's Chesapeake Bay flotilla in the area of what is now Fort Lincoln Cemetery. One of Commodore Barney's flotillamen was a former slave named Charles Ball who served helped service the cannons in the battle and later left an important slave narrative, Slavery in America. Barney's position was overrun and the Commodore was severely wounded with a bullet in the thigh. The British under General Ross marched into Washington D.C. and after his lead forces were fired on and his horse killed, this led to the burning of the U.S. Capitol, the White House, and other public buildings.

Mr. Obama, you might know that a War of 1812 Bicentennial bill has been considered in Congress but has stalled. This is perhaps not surprising because despite the great significance of this war in our nation's history, not every of the 51 states of our nation were touched by the war, so it can't be said that every state has a stake in the legislation. This is the reason the backers of the bill, including the Maryland congressional delegation, have had trouble trying to persuade other lawmakers to vote for the bill. I do believe you have had some difficulties getting legislation passed in the past year as well.

Mr. President, I have a better suggestion. I have a plan for a National Museum of the War of 1812 including an archives and research center and have identified a disused Federal building which might be ideal for such a museum. It is the Department of Agriculture's former Annex, also known as the Cotton Building, at 300 12th Street, S.W. The building is within sight of the National Mall and so just across from the National Museum of American History where the newly restored "Star-Spangled Banner" that flew over Fort McHenry can be viewed by our citizens as well as overseas visitors. I would like the proposed museum if it is to be in that location or any other to tell the story of the war, including that of African Americans and all ethnic groups that helped defend this nation.

Mr. Obama, I hope you will back this effort. On March 23, as I was instructed in a telephone conversation with Mr. Juan A. McPhail, General Services Administration (GSA) Building Supervisor, about the former Dept of Agriculture Annex, I emailed Mr Robert Roop, Deputy Director, GSA, but have not heard back from him. I include a copy of that email below. Perhaps you could be helpful in getting me in touch with Mr. Roop so we can explore whether the building in question could serve the needs I have specified. Many thanks in advance. I work near the Cotton Building and can see it out of my window. I cannot wait to see a replica giant 15-star flag flying over the building if it becomes the National Museum of the War of 1812, just as it did over Fort McHenry that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words of the anthem.

Best regards

Christopher T. George
Author, Terror on the Chesapeake: The War of 1812 on the Bay

*****************

For an article by me on African-American Sailors in the War of 1812, click on the title above. Incidentally, in a cover article in the Washington Post on Wednesday, it was revealed the President Obama receives an astounding 20,000 letters per day, out of which he does personally read about 10 per day.

Red Pencils and Blue Pencils: Of Slavery and Bondage

My favorite Maryland Republican, Michael Steele (above), chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), has been in the news again.

First, on the weekend of the final House of Representatives vote on health care reform, when Tea-Party activists verbally attacked Democrats entering the Halls of Congress to vote yelling out racial and homophobic epithets, Mr. Steele, an African American, failed to strongly condemn such behavior instead just labeling such people as "stupid." And this against the background of the long history of violence and hatred displayed at times in this country in the past.

Need Mr. Steele be reminded of the slavery, Jim Crow, fiery crosses and the Ku Klux Clan? The same weekend featured a number of instances of vandalism against the offices of congressman, apparently both Democratic and Republican as violence, even if just (so far) against property reared its head.

Second, Steele and his personal expenses for February, as revealed by the Federal Election Committee last week, totaled $17,514 and $12,681, respectively, for the use of private planes and private cars. And the RNC are reportedly in trouble for authorizing an undisclosed Republican's expenses of $1,946 spent at a California nightclub known as Voyeur West Hollywood that specializes in bondage and simulated lesbian sex.

A spokesperson assured the media that the person whose expenses were covered, and who will now be made to reimburse the RNC, was not Mr. Steele himself. Well, that's a relief. (Subsequently, it was revealed that the man who billed the RNC for their time at the club was Erik Brown, an Orange County, California GOP donor-vendor. Should we say, "Good work, Brownie"? The RNC staffer who paid Brown was fired by Michael Steele.)

Bottom line is, the GOP operatives have been enjoying themselves while the country faces serious issues. Remember this is the party that speaks about "Family Values" and fiscal responsibility. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns!











The U.S. Capitol in 1829 with the copper dome designed by architect Charles Bulfinch. H. and J. Stokes, after Charles Bulfinch "United States Capitol," The Jackson Wreath. Philadelphia: Jacob Maas, 1829, p. 87.

In regard to where hateful rhetoric can lead, Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post journalist Eugene Robinson has an excellent column in today's Post, "Where the rhetoric of rage can lead." Check it out by clicking on the title above.

As a War of 1812 historian, I am reminded of the savagery of pro-war Baltimoreans against anti-war Federalists in the streets of the city in the summer of 1812 after President James Madison declared war on the British. A man who when I got into research on the war appeared to me somewhat of a hero because as a private in the 27th Regiment at North Point on September 12, 1814, made a statement that appears consistent with some of the nasty rhetoric we are hearing these days. Levi Hollingsworth, who owned the copperworks on the Gunpowder River where the copper for the Bulfinch Dome on the restored 1830's U.S. Capitol was made after the then Capitol buildings was burned by the British in August 1814, remarked about Federalist tortured and killed by the mob "They deserved it." Are such incidents and such sentiments the price of democracy? I hope not.

Meanwhile, talking about democracy Google has removed itself from Red China after the hopes of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who grew up in his native Russia under the Soviet Communist regime, to liberalize China through the internet were dashed after the Red Chinese hacked into Google to trace dissidents.

China continues to use strong arm tactics against anyone who opposes the regime despite the hopes of Brin and even Bill Clinton that the Internet might help open up the country. The former President reportedly in 2000 mocked Chinese attempts to control the Internet, "Good luck. That's sort of like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall."

And Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head. . . .

Image and Words

Sometimes image comes first and words follow,
stumbling along in the wake of the eye candy.

Here are March raindrops I captured for you,
the photographer drenched in the downpour.

Was it worth it, a few words dripped on the page:
image to startle the eye, words to tickle the mind.

Christopher T. George















Of Asteroids and Asterisks

Health care got enacted and as Barack declared,
the earth didn't chasm, nor did asteroids attack us
tho' GOP eyes rolled and Obamacare's foes groaned.

Soon all those i's will be dotted and asterisks added
as the wheels of government creak into motion.

The new GOP cry has become "Repeal and Replace!"
But heading to November's polls, they best save face
-- to repeal the new reforms might bring more disgrace.

Christopher T. George

"Heap Bad Medicine"? Fellow Citizens! Is U.S. National Health Care Good For You?

Yes It Has Happened, America, Despite Republican Opposition! A Significant Victory for President Obama and for all of America, I truly believe.

As the Washington Post headline states this morning, "Divided House passes health bill. The Republicans who stirred the tea" -- the latter being of course a reference to the Right Wing "Tea Party" movement that has so vocally opposed what they call "Obamacare" which they liken to what they see as Socialized medicine and a significant shift of the country to the Left, if not a total Government take-over. (To read the Post story click on the title above.)

To hear the triumphant President and his Democratic allies speak, this is a great day for America and a great step forward. Even the Republicans admit it is the most massive social reform since LBJ passed Medicare in 1965, so the day is certainly significant whatever your political stripe! It will enact significant changes for the American people, including covering some 39 million Americans who are not currently covered by health insurance. It will enable individuals to purchase affordable health insurance and allow small employers to offer health care for their employees.

Republicans claim that Obama is saddling the American citizenry with debt for decades to come, taking us to the brink, wrecking the country. Of course that might not be the case if the last Republican President, George W. Bush, had not led us into an ill-advised war in Iraq in Spring 2003 (all that long ago????) on apparently trumped up evidence that Saddam Hussein had developed Weapons of Mass Destruction that Coalition forces were subsequently unable to locate, right? Oh, dear....

Arriving at Union Station this morning under stormy skies, I did hear some ominous booming sounds. What were they? Just thunder, Or the Metro rumbling under Union Station, or planes taking off at Reagan National Airport across the Potomac. Don't ask me. (There was a massive thunderclap at Noon today!) Whatever the case, this is an important day in the history of our nation. A whole new day.

I don't necessarily buy the rightist political argument that the Democrats will lose heavily in the Fall because they backed this health care reform package that supposedly, as they insist, most Americans do not want. That's not correct. As I have written before, powerful moneyed forces have been working for decades to defeat health care reform and probably no more so than in the last 12 months. And no doubt many ordinary Americans have been confused by the size of the bill, some 1,200 pages as the Republicans are quick to point out, and by the long and arduous legislative process. Health care is an intricate and complex problem and hard to explain. Most Americans when they are told about the good things in the bill, such as that you cannot be dropped by your insurer, no matter what or that you cannot be denied by an insurance company for a pre-existing condition, are for the health care package, once it is properly explained to them.

Now that the Dems have found the message, now that they have triumphed over the forces of "No" and have rediscovered their voice to explain the good that health care reform will do for all Americans. America should be proud. If only the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) had lived to see this day! Teddy Kennedy's dream as a Senator was to bring about national health care. It is finally happening. I understand Sen. Kennedy's widow Vicki will be on Larry King on CNN tonight.


Federal Eagle

Above the portal of the old Federal office,
a bronze eagle is emblazoned, green with age.
Health care reform has passed in Congress,
despite partisan foes and vested interests.
Gray storm clouds broil over Washington,
a thunderclap splits the air at midday.
I walk up a hill past pink cherry trees as
rain spatters my cheeks. On a rooftop corner
a roosting hawk silently watches and preens.

Christopher T. George




















Citizens, Will You Join Me in My Dream to Establish a National War of 1812 Museum in Washington, D.C.?

I have an idea for a National Museum of the War of 1812 and have identified a former US Department of Agriculture building at 300 12th Street SW close to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., that possibly could be the home for such a major museum and archives and research center dedicated to the War of 1812.

What attracted me to the building which is only a block from where I work in Washington, D.C., was the lovely Federal Eagle above the doorway, shown above. Around the doorway is the fasces design from Roman history, seen both on Baltimore's War of 1812 Battle Monument honoring the city's dead in the Battle of Baltimore of September 12-14, 1814, and on the old U.S. Morgan dime of the 1940's, I was taking photographs with my cell phone camera when I noticed the glass doors of the building were padlocked and the building unoccupied.

Frankly, I think such a project for a National Museum of the War of 1812 in our nation's capital might be more doable politically than the Bicentennial Commission that has stalled in Congress but that we advocates of the war still bring about -- not every state has a stake in the war, but the nation's capital was clearly at the center of events when the British captured Washington, D.C., the only attack on the U.S. capital by a foreign attacker before September 11, 2001. And what location could be more appropriate to tell the whole story of the War of 1812 than our nation's capital? This is a way to raise the visibility of the war and teach American citizens about the significance of a little understood war.

I have made a preliminary enquiry with the Government Accounting Office and have been told there are no plans at this time for the presently vacated facility, known as the Dept of Agriculture Annex or Cotton Building at 300 12th Street SW, a block south of the National Mall and the Smithsonian Castle, and within a mile or so, across the Mall, of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, where the newly restored Star-Spangled Banner that flew over Fort McHenry in September 1814 is housed. The same flag that inspired Georgetown lawyer and poet Francis Scott Key, detained on a truce ship in the Patapsco during the famous bombardment, to write a poem entitled "The Defense of Fort McHenry" soon to be renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner"!

I hope within the next several weeks to arrange with the GAO to tour the facility and see whether it in fact could be adapted for the purposes expressed above. Meanwhile there are photographs of the building in question as well as posts about the proposed museum on the Maryland Star-Spangled Banner 200 list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/starspangled200. To get put on the list contact Kate Marks at KMarks@choosemaryland.org - you might need a Yahoo account to join.

Of course, as with the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail that I helped initiate along with Mr. Robert Reyes, I realise the founding of such a National Museum of the War of 1812 will not be an easy task. Even so I would like to inform the list at this early stage of the attempt to initiate such a significant institution which will help inform the American public and overseas visitors of the importance of the War as we enter the Bicentennial celebration of those events 200 years ago.

Edgar Allan Poe Class and Tour with Christopher T. George

An unfamiliar, unmoustachioed Edgar Allan Poe looking more like he would have looked when he lived in Baltimore in 1829-1835 when he tasted his first literary success in his family's city.

I will be teaching a one-evening class with a day tour of sites associated with Poe in the Kaleidoscope program at Roland Park Country School (RPCS) on "The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe." The class will discuss the mystery of Poe's death here in Baltimore in October 1849 as well as his many connections to the city.

Class night Thursday, April 29, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, with field trip, Saturday, May 1, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Bus will leave the parking lot at RPCS, 5204 Roland Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21210 (located between Northern Parkway and Deepdene Road; RPCS is about 1/3 of a mile from Northern Parkway on the right) promptly at 8:00 am and return by 4:00 pm. Class registration includes lunch at Patrick's of Pratt Street not far from the Poe House on S. Amity Street, West Baltimore. Download the Kaleidoscope program in pdf form through the title to this blog listing or call (410) 323-5500 x 3045 with any inquiries.
















Church Home Hospital, formerly the Washington College Hospital, on Broadway, East Baltimore, where the writer died in mysterious circumstances in October 1849, will be one of the stops visited on the tour.

A "Deeming Vote" for the Dems?

As reported in The Hill on Tuesday:

"Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Tuesday defended a tactic that would allow the House to 'deem' the Senate healthcare bill passed without actually voting on the bill.

"Hoyer (D-Md.) said at his weekly news conference that a rule deeming the Senate bill passed is consistent with procedures and practices used by Republicans and Democrats alike, and that it’s appropriate for a bill that will be moments away from being amended anyway."

A "Deeming Vote" is a new term to me. When I first heard the term spoken on one of the cable news programs I was sure that the pundits were saying "Demon Vote" which of course would be utterly consistent with the way G.O.P. politicos have been characterizing Democratic plans to finalize health care reform!

I wonder if any of the Dems who are considering such a "Deeming Vote" know that Frederick Bailey Deeming was a mass murderer who killed his family in Rainhill, England, and then went to Australia with another woman whom he had romanced in England. Then he killed her too. Deeming, a confidence trickster who also went by the name of Baron Swanston, was found guilty of murder and hanged in Melbourne on Monday, May 23rd, 1892.

Newspapers of the day thought that Deeming could have been Jack the Ripper, the notorious but uncaught serial killer of London's 1888 "Autumn of Terror." Above is a press conception of Deeming with fifth canonical victim, Mary Jane Kelly, killed and grievously mutilated in her one-room lodging at 13 Miller's Court, Spitalfields, in the early morning hours of November 9, 1888. Certain it is that Deeming did have a thing for bladed weapons -- he had a collection of South African assegais among other nasty killing instruments.

Yet most Ripperologists discount Deeming, seeing him more as the family murderer he appeared on the surface to be. It is believed that the con man and killer was in South Africa at the time of the Ripper crimes.

He may not have been Jack but the Public Record Office of Victoria, Australia, have done an extraordinary job of putting on-line documents and information about Frederick Bailey Deeming. Check it all out by clicking on the title above.























With Jackie O and Joe Cocker at Union Station

Okay, so it wasn't Jackie O
-- a woman hustled by me with
an oil of the late Missus JKO.

And it wasn't Joe C -- a bloke
with Joe's pushed-in fizzog
and scruffy ponytail scuttled

thru with groupie toward the
U.S. Capitol dome, maybe to get
health care reform passed at last, pray,

"With A Little Help From My Friends."

Christopher T. George

Take This Bill and Shove It

According to a front page article in today's Washington Post (read the full article by clicking on the title above), "After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it."

Well, yes, of course, because the Democrats are not sure they have the votes to pass the Senate bill, such is the strident opposition to it by Republicans both in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

And the American public supposedly doesn't want the bill because they have been soured on it by critics who say it is too expensive or would jeopardize what benefits they do have. Or else, the more extreme accusations, because President Obama and his Democratic cronies want "to pull the plug on Grandma" or bring Socialist medicine to the United States, the nation that the deluded think has "the best health care system in the world" -- indeed, friends, it is the best system in the world, . . . er, if you can afford it. You can have all the latest tests and procedures. Save up, Americans! Keep playing the numbers! Pray to your fuzzy dice.

How Ridiculous!!!! Of course all Americans want Good Health Care!!!!!! And Health Care Reform, if Americans did but know it, would be Good for them. Swallow that medicine, America. We all know medicine can taste nasty. But it makes you better. . . in the end.

My friends, isn't it more likely that the citizenry have been brainwashed and misled by the vested interests and fat cats who love their health care and don't care for the rest of us who can't afford health care???? And people who have been denied by insurance companies because of "pre-existing conditions" as the industry notoriously does. Oh, dear. Will President Obama and his allies be able to deliver health care or not? Aaaaargh. Stay tuned.



All for Oil and Allah

Jihad Jane and G.I. Joe got on down, created
a clutch of blue-eyed G.I.-Jihad terrorists,

a mixture we found both unexpected and unsettling.
What happened to racial profiling: the filthy Arab,

the raghead, the stereotypical Jihadist?
Don't tell us you're right here among us,

in suicide vests, ready to detonate
as we kiss each other's cheeks.

Christopher T. George


























Homage to Holy Frijoles

I'm in Hampden* to pick up our fajitas
because Holy Frijoles won't deliver,
they’re one of those go-to-places for
burritos, chimichangas, refried beans.

I'm waiting for them to finalize the order,
wonder if I should chug a beer at the bar,
a cool Dos Equis, Corona with wedge of lime
but instead I skulk around back with my cell-

phone camera, still with your ABBA CD ringing
in my ears (SOS!) that I heard on the drive over:
imagine I'm decked in turquoise spandex
and platform boots as I photograph detritus

left from the snow -- a crushed Bud can, myriad
cigarette butts and some mysterious eye graffiti
by the sign where the bank threatens to tow my car.
Finally, stroll back down the side of Frijoles, snap

the pictographs on the wall of the Aztecs
who used to populate Hampden centuries ago.

Christopher T. George

* Hampden is a working class area of Baltimore, maybe a bit akin to Wavertree in Liverpool, to characterize it for my Merseyside and British friends and other readers of this blog. The area has recently become yuppified with trendy restaurants, clothing boutiques, antique stores.

The neighborhood is a favorite place of movie maker and schlockmeister John Waters. He and I live about the same distance from the place. Johnny boy and his artsy thin moustache live just up the street from Donna and myself in an old carriage house. That's envy speaking.

But we can be the poor Waters neighbors. After all Donna put those two plastic purple flamingoes out on our balcony. :-)

Pop Goes the Weasel?

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks, photographed while in detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

POP!!!!!

Wait, was that the sound of Obama's spine snapping?????

"Obama aides near reversal on 9/11 trial" -- a front page headline in today's Washington Post. Check out the on-line version of the article through the title above.

Despite Attorney General Eric Holder's earlier decision that the correct course of action would be to try the man who allegedly planned the Al Queda terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in a New York civilian federal court and the established fact that under the Bush administration almost all terrorists were tried in such civilian courts, it appears the Obamaites are caving to unjust and unreasonable Republican pressure. Reports suggest the White House will reverse itself and prosecute Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed genius behind the horrendous attacks, before a military tribunal.

An Obama administration official had said on November 13, 2009 that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees would be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court. Well, guess what, now, three months later, after relentless criticism from critics who claim that decision showed weakness in the face of the terrorist threat, as well as complaints from New Yorkers including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that a New York location for the trial could leave the city open to attack, the administration seems to have backed down and reversed itself.

Sorry, White House!!! This just goes to prove exactly what your critics have been saying: the current Obama administration has a backbone of Jell-o when it comes to dealing with terrorism. You should be able to stand up to your critics just as you should be able to stand up to terrorists. For shame. And by the way, New York a target for attack??? Give us a break. When has it not been a target for attack.... just like the entire United States.... ever since the Age of Terror began?

Once again, this shows that the White House needs to take charge of its own messaging and lead rather than appear to be unable to lead. Get your act together, Mr. Obama, please. You've sounded better recently on health care. Forceful. It needs to be done. Yes. Then get it done. If you don't get it done, your foes will get the win they crave through your defeat. That would be bad news for you and for the nation.
















Guilty

Okay, so I was home watching the AM ESPN soccer
match I'd promised to show you at your nursing home.
I know you won't remember my promise. I should be there

to take you for a drive, the ritual Royal Farms coffee
but there's been overnight snow, if just a light dusting,
and I'm still tired from our Wednesday night outing,

wheeling you in and out of the ladies, you squealing
as I took you out to the chill parking lot; a man glared
as if I was abusing you. In our politically correct times,

I could be brought up on charges. So I phone you now
to say I can't take you: I'm guilty as sin, the guilty son.
You tell me "Go to hell" and hang up: guilty as charged.

Later I walk to the deli, buy a cheap green plastic bottle
of scotch, take cell phone photos of wall moss, lichen,
and snow, and a fossil leaf dimpling sidewalk cement.

Christopher T. George












The Jury Pool

I've begun this poem in the Quiet Room
of the Baltimore City Courthouse;
the name is a joke given the periodic

belching flush from the restroom
in the corner. I've been dozing--
snooze interruptus; my lunchtime

BLT's repeat. A slumped fat guy snores,
his "Juror" tag rises, falls on his chest.
Woman with scarf wrapped round her head

might be the first casualty of jury service.
Fellow awake jurors clack on their laptops.
And I feel consoled: I've made this poem.

Christopher T. George

Signs of Spring?

Jonquil Advent

In soil free after weeks buried
under feet of frozen snow,

yellow shoots thrust up
hard by dwindling ice--

arise, jonquils, in gentle rain.
Arise! For your season has come!

Christopher T. George

A UK poet at FreeWrights Peer Review poetry forum (see link through title) questioned my use of the term "hard by" and some other elements of the above poem--

Hi C.T.G,

I had a job understanding line four, if the earth is clear of snow, where did the ice come from, I thought you said it was gently raining; it seems to be a contradiction in terms. Maybe you could explain what you mean by “hard by dwindling ice” did you perhaps mean that the narcissus were hard, or is it just some strange North American term. Last time I heard “hard by” used was at the Sheep Dog Trials at Keswick.
I rather like Poeticus they are rather appealing don’t you think...

Mor
The jack of doggerel.

I replied:

Hi Mor

Well I am from Liverpool as you may know but do admit some confusion any longer on what are Yankee or Limey terms. I would have thought "hard by" in the UK means "close to" just as it does here. And per the photograph and what I mean in the poem, the some 30-inches of snow we received here in the Baltimore-D.C. area within a week a month ago has now, through warmer temps and rain, mostly disappeared: what had been vast piles of snow turning into ice and melting away as described. I hope this helps. Thanks for reading and commenting.

Chris














Petals
look so pastel
pink by the red brick wall
-- the Korean rhododendron.
Beauty!

Christopher T. George




Photography and Poetry -- For Sale!

Gerry Temple, a talented photographer and poet in Derry, Northern Ireland, has made me aware that he is marketing some of his images combined with poems at a site called RedBubble.

Gerry reports:

"I've been putting a lot of my work onto another site that allows people who like my work to buy anything from a card right up to a poster.

"It's worth having a look there just to see some of the beauty some good photographers have captured."

Check out Gerry's beautiful poem and photograph "Calm":



Enjoy! I thought this might give a few of us some ideas on how to market our work.

Cheers

Chris