In January I taught a workshop about combining poetry and art with Marla Kristicevich at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. This week Marla posted on Facebook her installation for an art show for PACE artists. She explained that she gathered material around the Bayou Teche. Her inspiration for the piece combined the nostalgia for place as well as meditation on nature in art. The image does not show the scale of the work. Imagine the height of the walls are the size of a person. Today I’m sharing an ekphrastic poem, a poem inspired by art. You can see the exhibit at the ACA through June 8th.
Nest by Marla Kristicevich
An Invitation
Come into my nest.
Enter on a woven path.
Stop for a sip of living water.Leave nothing
behind.
Just pause,
reflect,
release,Then move on
so someone else
can move in.–Margaret Simon (draft) 2019
So new for this holy Saturday. I was at vigil last night night. It felt like this place.
So meditative, Margaret. Both your poem and the artwork that inspired it. Peace.
I am wrapped
inside this fabric
of the found —
a shawl
a blanket
a network, connected
by this place
where fingers lace
the twines of time,
you’ll find me
bound by belief:
I am forever,
unwound
— Kevin (with a note that I have been reading your poems in my RSS feeds, Margaret, and then forgetting to come back to comment or to riff off your writing. Today, I remembered … and this post is right in tune with my poetry writing this month of unexpected images inspiring daily poems)
Thanks, Kevin. This is a beautiful idea of comfort and connection that poetry gives us.