For National Poetry Day 2020, Slough Libraries and Culture service invited local artists to ‘See it Like a Poet’. Below you will discover how they produced beautiful artwork in response to some of their favourite poems.
You can also read descriptions about how their chosen poems inspired them as well as the materials and techniques they used to produce their work so maybe you too can be inspired to 'See it Like a Poet'.
Want to explore more poetry? Why not request some poetry books through our Click & Collect service. All four of our libraries – The Curve, Britwell, Cippenham and Langley – are now partially open for our new Click and Collect service and book returns. You just need your Library card and PIN number to request and borrow books which our staff will select for you. To start Click and Collect click here.
Save Our Rainforests by Aparajita De
Inspired by the poem Paradise Lost by John Milton
Statue by Marinela Caldarus
Acrylics and resin
Inspired by the poem 'Adrift Sonancy' by Kamilla
"The artwork Statue is a reflection of my own feelings related to motherhood, isolation, anxiety, loneliness, stress.
In life we can become as statues isolated one from each other, surrounded by pain and sorrows like ivy plants clinging around the tree. But somewhere we have our own land of dreams and peace.
Initially, I intended to depict a portrait of a depressed person but by the end of my painting the portrait turned out to be serene and peaceful looking like a statue".
@artclassesgroup
Open Minded by Sarah Lawman
Ink and oil pastel
Inspired by the poem ‘Freedom’ by Olive Runner
"My vision is always clearer when I am amongst nature and open space. The freedom for clarity and a vision to go further in our journey in life. A vision that can branch off in different directions, can be one minute solid and strong and then be more delicate like the brooks water forever travelling. There is always a vision amongst freedom".
@sarahlawmanart
Ushuaia by Andrea Percivali
Photograph
Inspired by the poem ‘Song of the Sea’ by Rainer Maria Rilke
"I always travel with a book of poetry and my camera. I don't care if the trip is 2 days or 2 weeks. Nor does it matter if I go to the other end of the world or if I spend a weekend nearby. In each trip I take I like to read poetry slowly and let the verses reveal another way of defining feelings and another way of getting closer to reality. In the same way that poetry does not pretend to be a description of the real, photography is not a copy of the real but a proposal or possibility of meaning.
The ritual is always the same: take a walk with the camera and let myself be carried away by the emotions that poetry evokes. Walk, observe, look and feel. Then, at the precise moment, I shoot the camera.
A few years ago I travelled to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world in the extreme south of Argentina. It is often referred to as El Fin del Mundo (the end of the world), which can easily conjure up an image of a desolate paramo and yet Ushuaia is surrounded by breathtaking natural beauty, forests, mountains, canals, and the sea.
I chose for that trip a book of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke. I took the book with me on every hike and read the 'Song of the Sea' poem over and over again. I remember the stormy afternoon in February when I took the photo on the Beagle Channel, the feeling of timeless vastness, remoteness and extreme latitude".
Rising Dawn by Sarbjit Johal
Acrylics
Inspired by the poem ‘We Will See’ (Hum Dekhenge) by Faiz Ahmed Faiz and a couplet by Dinos Christianopoulos
This painting is about our ability to bloom despite adversity.
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