DIANNE CARROLL BURDICK: “I photographed all the images with black & white film and printed all images on fiber-base black & white paper. When the print is dry, I treat the paper with an oil-base solvent and color the image with colored pencils. ‘Playground’ was photographed at my dad’s ranch in Ukiah, California. Strangely enough, Ukiah spelled backwards is haiku. My dad, Bruce Carroll, had 200 acres called Round Mountain, and when I would visit, I would always twirl near the spot that this photograph was taken, to enjoy the vast beauty of the land.”

LINDA NEMEC FOSTER: “Throughout my writing career, I have had a deep interest in collaborating with others. In 1998 Dianne Carroll Burdick asked me to write poems in response to her photography for a collaborative art/poetry exhibit called ‘The Good Earth.’ I composed haiku—the traditional form created by Japanese poets over 500 years ago. Then, as now, haiku were written in response to the natural world: the human reaction to the landscape that we are a part of, yet separate from. Ultimately, this project was not only about the landscapes of images and words, but about ourselves: how each of us reflects the universe that the world contains.”

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PLAYGROUND

She wants to run, twirl
Follow the path all the way
To her past: those trees

—from Rattle #29, Summer 2008
Tribute to Visual Poetry