To begin

Welcome to Calliope Unbound! This week marks the official launch of the Calliope Unbound creative challenge. I’m sure it will be small at first, but hopefully it will grow into a thriving creative community.

What is Calliope Unbound? Well, once a week for the past month, I have been posting poems accompanied by original photographs on my personal blog, using the photos to inspire me to write myself out of a creative dry spell. It’s been challenging and alot of fun, and its’s something I plan to keep doing. I know there are alot of talented writers and photographers in the blogging community, so I wanted to open the challenge up to everyone.

Participation is simple. Post an original photograph or series of photographs accompanied by an original poem on your blog, then come back here and submit a link to your post (the exact post, not just your blog) in the comments section of this post. Every Monday morning, there will be a new post you can link to–participate as little or as often as you like, and don’t forget to check out other people’s submissions too. For details, or to grab a spiffy button, read more here. You can also find links to my January 08 poems there if you would like to see some examples, or you can read Nina Bagley’s beautiful Winter, which combines poetic prose and photography.

If you’re not a poet or photographer, don’t worry. Calliope Unbound is for everyone, and you may discover that with a little bit of time and practice, you can create things far beyond your expectations. Even though I have been writing for many years, I’m fairly new to photography–in fact, my first January 08 poem was inspired by some very blurry pictures I took of our Christmas tree. So come stretch your wings and let Calliope inspire you!