Yes, this is another weekly blog challenge! As you know from my previous post we PLP kids have entered into a blogging challenge offered worldwide. Each week, there’s a new challenge that must be completed! Unfortunately we started 3 weeks late, but oh well.

Week three is all about Creative Commons and using non-copyrighted imagery in our blog posts. For the sake of these topics, let’s say you are writing a blog post about cats. Of course you want to include an adorable photo of a kitten from the interwebs… guess what, you can’t just use the first photo that comes up when you search ‘cute cats’! Most of the photos you find on Google are protected by copyright and aren’t free to use, unfortunately. That would be great if it was possible to use any photo on the internet, but it’s just not how things work. You can purchase images from the internet, but let’s be real, nobody really wants to do that for their blog post about cats.

On the bright side, there are other ways to find great photos free to use. Sometimes it’s compicated and you have to get permission from the creator of the photo, but other times you can simply give credit and it’s enough. Creative Commons images are accessible to use depending on the certain liscense that the creator has given their photo. Usually, a Creative Commons image requires you to credit the artist and little to nothing more. Royalty free photos allow you to use the image without credit or any other extra form of recognition for its creator.

One of the options for this week’s challenge was to select a royalty free or Creative Commons image and write a poem about it, which is exactly what I’m going to do!

This photo is from Pexels, which has tons of royalty free images to use.

The Ocean

The ocean, stories to be told.

Past, present and future, it holds; within the unruly waves

and the sheen of a summer sunset’s glow, seconds to minutes to years

it all encapsulated in the flow.

Your hands, they touch the cool, clear water. But is it really water? No;

it is the words

the whispers of the fish and the seals, their tales of happiness, longing and woe.

Back through the years, minutes and seconds

future, present, past

The ocean, still there; moving with the sunset’s glow

tell me your stories, you ask.

I absolutely love this photo, actually. I’m not sure why but it reminds me of Charlie’s last letter at the end of the film version of The Perks Of Being a Wallflower. (I included the link so you guys know what I’m talking about!) I love that instant where he is standing in the back of the truck racing through the tunnel, and talking about how the moments we are experiencing are not stories and that we are here now. It is a beautiful speech. My poem is not nearly as moving, but I hope you enjoyed nonetheless!

Stay tuned for next week’s challenge!