Discovering my voice as a poet is an ongoing evolution for me, but in recent years, one aspect of my poetic practice that has become more and more clear is that I am often and fruitfully inspired by the works of other literary and visual artists. I’ve so enjoyed ekphrastic work and have felt such pride in the results of my work in this genre, and I’ve continued to mine this vein; one of the poems in my notebook uses The World According to Garp as jumping-off point, and another speaks of a three-cornered hat.  Someday, I’d love to try writing in response to music.

Image by Knoxville Museum of Art via Flickr

This fall, a friend said I should check out the light ekphrastic, an online journal that pairs visual artists and poets, each creating a piece inspired by the work of the other, publishing the results in each edition. What a fantastic idea, right? So, I dug out three poems, had the same friend give me some helpful feedback, polished them up and sent them to the editor, Jenny O’Grady, a poet and book artist here in Baltimore.

Reader, she accepted them. Right now I’ve got several digital images of paintings from a talented artist and will be writing a piece inspired by one of them, while that artist works on a painting inspired by one of my pieces. The entire enterprise is so stimulating and exciting to me; what will I see in her work, and what will she see in mine? The potential is so rich, and I can’t wait to see the final pieces.

The issue with my work in it goes live in February–watch this space!

Related articles

• Warning! (womenswindow.com)
• Bob Hicok’s “By Their Works” (calvindolsen.wordpress.com)