POETRY & PROSE February 2025
When Artwork Comes Alive
Every month, this page will contain prose and poem contributions from “Writers in the Gallery” participants, from “Poetry in the Gallery” open-mic participants, from members of Studio Channel Islands, and from local writers in Ventura County. Selections are made by our literature review panel.
“Writers in the Gallery” meets in the Studio Channel Islands art gallery, which features a different exhibition every month. Our workshop leaders will often guide the group through a writing exercise that involves direct interaction with the artwork.
In January, Jennifer Jones demonstrated “archetypal writing” – using Carl Jung’s Active Imagination technique – by having participants converse with one of the artworks on display and to turn that conversation into a poem or short piece of prose. Below are several examples of what was created. On the REVIEWS & ARTICLES link you’ll find instructions for doing this unique writing exercise with others.
ARCHIVE
The Parting Clouds
by Allison Mei-Li
Sculpture by Audrey Abbe: “Gold in the Stars
the moon broke first
i saw her:
cracked and cratered—
more pieces than whole
more broken than bound
i, too, never feared
a dent or dig,
a scrape or stitch
i etched memories
in the palm of my hand
carved strength
in the soles of my feet
i grew gills overnight,
screamed underwater
where my voice
became song
where my thoughts
became siren
everyone wanted
to mend me at the joints,
make something broken
beautiful again
don’t you get it? i said
the gold you see here,
where i’m splintered and split—
this isn’t what keeps me
together
don’t you see? i said
my scars
are the parting clouds,
the very spots
that let the light out
Running Out of Time
By Mark Waldman
Painting by Corissa Leeds: “Approaching Midnight”
The girl calls out from the picture frame,
but she teases me with silence
and blinds me with her paint.
I reach,
I touch,
and slip inside the painting
with gallery guards
pointing guns of shame,
at whom, I do not know.
I languish in these canvas walls
standing beside the girl,
when someone with a face like mine
is begging me to speak.
But I am but a brushstroke
waiting to be kissed,
embraced,
seduced …
before the time runs out.
Blooms
By Tamara Nowlin
Sculpture by Vivian Tran: Lotus and River Torso
Straight-laced
In the strain of perfection
She burst
Open
Visible to the world
At last
Suddenly it was her blooms
She could no longer hide.
Middle-aged
And rounded
unseen
But as she unfolded
The beauty of her spirit
Exploded and gleamed.
Afraid no longer
She demanded
Her space in the world
Alight in wonder
Of this new existence
This new place
Quiet out loud
Vulnerable and open
Her blooms protruded
Alive
Well
A story yet to tell.
Two Poems by Ann Bradley
Will you be my reader?
My anchor place for dreams and fantasies?
Reader of half-truths and myths?
This is not a commitment
to be taken lightly.
Subterranean depths and
far off galaxies can be
disorienting and you cannot
abandon ship midway.
There are extreme penalties far worse than death
for leaving poets without a reader.
LIFEBLOOD
The poetry in me has escaped
the confines of my brain
It bubbles through my blood
and courses through my veins.
Scratch me
and I will bleed words.
Cut my belly,
and words will follow
melancholy,
acerbic,
teasing,
joyous.
They tumble together
in and out of rhyme.
Prick my finger:
a veritable cascade
of words.
My woman’s wound,
it too,
bleeds poetry.
Should you be offended
by one or more
simply feed it back to me
through a needle in my vein
And I shall make sure
this time
it passes through
the heart.
The Library of You
By Sophie Haviland
Write on the backs of empty
envelopes
On the other side of bills that
arrive in the mail still unopened
Write on paper napkins or paper
tablecloths in restaurants
Write inside the books you carry
with you
If you still carry books or sit in
restaurants or receive envelopes
in the mail
Even torn grocery bags,
the utensil covers of take away
food and
Who even uses butcher’s paper
anymore?
Find these as the phrases arise
unprepared, sudden with the press
of love to be captured
It’s there; the library of you;
scribbled on paper scraps found
as the moment asks- such
personal attention
In that certain moment
Found paper scraps
shoeboxed away; once
contained; now your found
evidence of life living you
CONTRIBUTORS:
Allison Mei-Li is a mother, writer, and speech-language pathologist. Her work has been published in Rust + Moth, Voicemail Poems, MER Literary, Coffee and Crumbs, Ink + Marrow, and more. She shares her writing on Instagram @writtenbyallison and at allisonwrites.substack.com.
Mark Waldman is a neuroscience researcher, teacher, and author of 14 nonfiction books, and a founding member of the Bad Poet Society: “The deliberate attempt to write witty cringeworthy ‘bad’ poetry can be a great tool for understanding what constitutes great poetry.”
Tamara Nowlin is a former lawyer turned poet, a writer at heart who traded legal briefs for lyrical verse. A mom of two college kids, she finds inspiration in the beauty of resilience, love, and self-discovery through her words.
Ann Bradley is a California writer on various topics from divorce to vegetarian kids to positive psychology to quantum entanglement to tech in Silicon Valley to a legal appeals brief. Every slice of life is a worthy and interesting topic to write about for me.
Sophie Haviland has been involved with experimental theater and film in NY and Europe for many years. She currently lives in Australia and is involved in food gardens, physiology and spontaneous creative endeavors.
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Writers in the Gallery correspondence: Mark@MarkRobertWaldman.com
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