Untitled
acrylic, some pencil, and collage on board. 8" x 8"
by Amy Souza
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - Once again, I have had the fun of participating in SPARK, brainchild of Amy Souza. In this round, Spark 18, I happened to be paired up (again, yay!) with artist Amy Souza herself. Ten days ago, she sent me a digital file with the above painting, and it was my job to write a poem (it could have been anything) inspired by her piece. Now, on day 10, I am allowed to share it! Many other Spark participants (82 this round) are also sharing their collaborations and will be posting the to the Spark website throughout the week.
Spark is a refreshing and invigorating community event here on the Internet, because it presses a writer or an artist to go in a new direction than he or she might have otherwise. When I first looked at this painting, I fell in love with the colors...then I found a chameleon. Later, I saw a quilt. Then, one morning the rhyme patches/matches took hold in my head and Amy's image combined with my wordplay brought "Quilt Map" to life.
Here are the words I chose very carefully for this poem: stitches, swatches, matching, patches, snuggle, batches, stacks, watch, sew, grow, map, flannel, patterns, lap, wore, tore, seas, snatches, quilted, land. Do you notice anything special about any of them?
Oh, how I adore shopping at the word store...where everything is free!
This poem is written in quatrains, except for the last stanza which I wanted to stretch out a little bit. If you listen to me reading it, you will hear how the last two lines have a bit more of a pause in there...because those lines are the most important part.
This time of year always makes me think of making things: cookies, decorations, dinners for many, gifts! What do you like to make? Have you ever written about something you made? Have you ever made a poem as a gift? Trust me - people like it.
You can see that her very vibrant work made me think of a quilt!
You can see all of my past SPARK collaborations here, and on Monday in this space, look for Amy Souza's artwork inspired by my poem, "Wherever You Are -."
If you have not yet visited Sharing Our Notebooks to read about Mary Lee Hahn's notebooks, she's still there with a a wonderful post and a giveaway too.
Robyn is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Read, Write, Howl! Stop on by her place to learn the poetry news in the Kidlitosphere today. You can also visit Robyn at her very cool etsy shop, artsyletters.
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