On our summer trip to Austin to visit family, my sister took a ton of pictures. Well, okay, she only took 801, but that’s still a lot of pictures in a week. Then when we arrived at my house after our afternoon flight home I tried to copy all those pictures from her SD card to my computer, but my computer said the SD card needed to be formatted and wouldn’t show the folder with the pictures. We thought they were all lost!
I was impressed with my sister’s response, though. She didn’t panic or get upset. Instead, she said, “I can’t worry about that now. They may still be on the SD card. I just have to find someone who can retrieve them.” And then she got into her car and made the 3-hour drive home.
Over the next week or so, I prayed that those pictures would be retrieved, and also thanked God for my sister’s wonderful witness of calm and peace in what could have been a very upsetting situation.
Just the other day my sister texted me that she had found someone who was able to retrieve the pictures for only $179! What a deal – her priceless photos returned for only 22¢ each! As I’ve thought about this, the outline of a poem kept going through my head, so I decided to sit down and write it, and to post it today for my sister.
9/24/11 Update: I linked this to dVerse Poets Pub for the “Say It Again – Sam” poetry prompt because I thought it was a good example of poetry with repitition as an important element.
Priceless Pictures
What is a picture worth?
A picture that can never be replaced
or replicated from a trip that only happens once
in a lifetime, family time
What is a picture worth?
Each picture snapped with love and heart
of bats and cousins and aunts to remember
and cherish time together
Is a picture worth
a thousand words or more?
Are 801 pictures worth 801,000 words
of love and hope and memories to embrace?
What is a picture worth?
Is it worth 22 cents?
Is a word worth a fraction of a cent
spent to restore that which was lost?
A picture is priceless
for the words it can recall
of precious days spent making memories
that might otherwise fade with time.
