Poems for The Moleskine Project
UPDATE: I’m now maintaining this project here.
In 2018, the Ever Imaginative Ian, my dear brother, gave me a copy of The Moleskine Project: a beautiful collection of artwork confined by the dimensions of a standard spread of a moleskine notebook.
In an effort to engage with the art with more than just my eyes, I set out to write a poem about each piece. It was the perfect opportunity to employ an enchanting wood-bound journal gifted to me by the Wondrous Seamus Quinn. The process was simple:
- In the morning, open the book to a new page
- Take in the imagery for two minutes
- Immediately write a poem based on the first impressions and feelings engendered by the work
- Keep the poem contained to one page of the small notebook paper
As projects often go, I fell in and out of practice for chunks of time, but eventually found myself on the last page of the project. I am grateful for the experience. The texture and aroma of what seem to be handmade pages. The suspense of revealing that morning’s creation. The growing sense of duty to jump in to that artist’s creation and put words to it.
What started as a writing and mindfulness exercise turned into a new way for me to connect with visual arts. I now see them as collaborative. The creator queues up a prompt, and the consumer, should they wish, adapts and extends the narrative.
To celebrate this process and the artists that inspired my work, I’ll be sharing all 49 pairings of picture and poem.
1: Rodrigo Luff’s Phantom
I can feel her looking at me
maybe to console me.
but the earth is burning
more and more everyday.
and while the branch’s long pale arm
wet with dew
feels like something close to skin
and while it’s sometimes hard
for me to tell where my hair stops
and the tunnel of leaves around me
begins,
I can’t help but to drop
my gaze to the ground
to the soft cradle we
all hurdle towards.
because I don’t have hope
that our world will change
before it’s too late.
Part 1of 49 in a series of interpretations of visual arts from The Moleskine Project.
