Today’s spark for poetry practice is another kind of exhibition. Over the spring I have been working in the classroom on a Cruinniú na nÓg (young one’s creativity) project . It culminates in a showcase at Dowra Courthouse this Saturday when the kids get to show off their writing and we get to hear recordings of some of their work, as well as interviews about the process. Which leads directly to the exhibit, also at Dowra Courthouse, by artist Maria Bagnoli, on Making. It was a project exploring an artist in place, but much of it was a meditation on the creative process. Part of the exhibition’s aimwas to incorporate representations of the activities going on in the building – jewellery repair, pottery, dress-making, yoga, creative writing classes. At the opening Maria invited me to read my poem “Dancing with the Dressmaker’s Dummy”, which expressed the writing happening there in a poem echoing the main elements of the exhibition.
Making It
Make. Formulate. Create.
Light a fire.
Arrange a bed.
Beget.
Perpetrate a crime.
Enunciate your speech.
Originate.
Bully and browbeat.
Calculate your sums.
Snatch the last
bus, train, plane
to escape.
Bob and feint.
Win a trick
or score a century.
Mark your brand.
Shout out your style.
You’re making it.
Both cause
and effect.
Copyright 2019 Bee Smith. All rights reserved.
