the girl, the boy, behind the shadows

chantal by cristian el chico de camisa morada

so my friend cristian likes to walk around with his camera and take pictures of everything and then never share them... i am now forcing him to slowly share them on my blog {until we get him on twitter or flickr or his own blog} today we came up with the name 'el chico de camisa morada' for obvious reasons, he was the guy sitting with me in the cafe, the guy in the purple shirt, and there it was, he had a name, he just needed to stop hiding behind the shadows and the camera and share his work!

so while i was forcing him to get in the light... i decided i would make him write his very first haiku ever, while sitting at the table with me in the cafe. each of us would come up with a haiku to accompany this photo, and as cristian came up with the words 'the girl behind the shadow' we would each use this in our own haiku. long story short... the cafe closed, and 'we' hadn't finished yet ;) ;) so we sat in my car in front of the cafe for the next hour or so, finishing up the haiku. i told him if my 12 year old students could do it, so could he, and after mumbling some excuses about english not being his first language, it all came out very well....

the dark secret life
the girl behind the shadows
lived-- reflections--

by cristian el chico de camisa morada
{his 1st haiku ever}


that road not taken
the girl behind the shadows
hiding-- could have been--

by chantal the girl behind the shadows

then i got back home and on twitter, where i've been encouraging other friends to write haiku, a game of sorts that i've started with @Dr_Wes called #haikutherapy where he's trying to build his haiku-writing stamina and so little by little we write together. he writes the first line {5 syllables} then i take it from there. this has proved successful and therapeutic for the both of us. a few minutes after i returned from writing or rather forcing cristian to write, i had a line waiting for me on twitter by the good doc himself: superficial talk. i couldn't believe how well this would fit with cristian's second line, and thus the following haiku was born::

superficial talk
the girl behind the shadows
never said a word

by @dr_wes, cristian & me
{collaboration is a beautiful thing}

chantal by cristian el chico de camisa morada



:: out from the shadows he will come slow but steady 'el chico de camisa morada' ::