The road trip ends today as we ferry over to Northern Ireland this lunchtime. The final day before we journey home found me wandering happily in a museum and a creative gallery space in Glasgow. (After beaches, my second most happy place.) I wish I were gifted with the talent to make beautiful things with my hands. I am in awe of visual artists and crafts persons. Wandering around exhibitions primes my poetry pump. One medium meets another. Today’s poem takes its starting point from work in the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art. The provenance will be revealed at the end of the blog post. The poem acts as a response to the call made by another artist working in another medium who was responding to her reading of an author. That all were women and creative artists was apt. The actual exhibit was placed in a slightly lower gallery on the fringes of larger exhibition entitled Domestic Bliss. That creative artist’s work and living space often overlap, especially for women, made its placement within the wider context especially clever.
Studio Echoes
Study me this list:
Trophy Treason Traitor
Friend Acquaintance Manipulation
Defunct
Then this:
Prize Priceless Imprison
Mate Pal Twist
Defeat
Take the salt down from the cupboard.
Cast your circle.
Step into your space.
Learn to forget dirty plates.
They are outside the magic circle,
The frenemy of creativity
Study this:
the twist
of the steak knife
in the cutlery
drawn against
blank canvas
the skin of your memory.
Copyright 2019 Bee Smith
