all photos by Olivia Joy St. Claire
I give thanks for yesterday. The camaraderie of voices, the sharing of our creative selves and the location filled my senses completely. Marjorie Arnett
The weather was perfect, the studio was set with art material, the coffee was brewing. We sat down to read a poem by Gary Snyder:
How Poetry Comes to Me
It comes blundering over the
Boulders at night, it stays
Frightened outside the
Range of my campfire
I go to meet it at the
Edge of the light
And so began our day of exploring the similarities and differences between poetry writing and art making. We were a mixed group – some writers, some artists, some both – and we were willing to immerse ourselves in the alchemy of placing words on a page, or objects and colors on paper towards metaphor and meaning.
Through a variety of exercises and prompts poet Ellen Goldsmith and I led the group. We wrote poems from the words of other writers, we created collages inspired by our own poems, we made poems from another’s collage work, and we considered how composing in both poetry and art was really a series of decisions that each artist practiced over and over again towards a vision.
by Marjorie Arnett
We looked at the placement of words on a page. Consider these:
Obligations 2 by Layli Long Soldier
As we
embrace resist
the future the present the past
we work we struggle we begin we fail
to understand to find to unbraid to accept to question
the grief the grief the grief the grief
we shift we wield we bury
into light as ash
across our faces
by Ellen Goldsmith
by Jackie Ascrizzi
We considered the concept to of still life. Wasn’t it also about placement on the page? Where and why were these objects chosen, where and why were these words chosen? Consider this:
by Eva Hocheder
As the day lengthened, the meanings multiplied, the work deepened. Leaders and participants – I think everyone wanted more. We hope to offer this workshop again next year!
our group.