{"id":27576,"date":"2014-12-22T08:09:25","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T19:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=27576"},"modified":"2014-12-22T08:09:22","modified_gmt":"2014-12-21T19:09:22","slug":"i-meant-it-to-be-a-poem-about-sparrows-unveiling-the-painting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2014\/12\/22\/i-meant-it-to-be-a-poem-about-sparrows-unveiling-the-painting\/","title":{"rendered":"“I Meant It To Be A Poem About Sparrows”: Unveiling The Painting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"work<\/a>

work in progress; artist Claire Beynon<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2013 I featured a Tuesday Poem series on ekphrastic poems (aka poems in response to works of art) and completed the series<\/a> with a \u2018counter-culture\u2019: a work of art developed in response to a poem.<\/p>\n

The poem was The Sparrows<\/em>, from my sequence in response to the Christchurch earthquake of February 22nd, 2011; the artwork was by artist and fellow Tuesday Poet Claire Beynon<\/a> and first shown as part of her 2011 En Masse <\/em>exhibition.<\/p>\n

This year, Claire gifted the painting to me, but although I have had it for some months I was focused on Daughter Of Blood<\/strong> and superstitiously didn’t want to unwrap it until I had time to press pause and properly appreciate it.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, however, I did all those things: pressed pause, unwrapped the painting, and properly appreciated it, together with a number of friends who made time in their pre-Christmas busy-ness to join me.<\/p>\n

And the painting did not disappoint: it is wonderful. But then I have loved Claire’s work for a long time and it’s a real honour to have words from one of my poems featured in one of her works.<\/p>\n

Here is what Claire wrote about this particular painting:<\/p>\n

\u201c…There\u2019s a synchronistic little story behind I meant it to be a poem about sparrows and the silence that followed<\/em>. . . This drawing was already well underway when I came upon\u00a0a poem by Christchurch-based writer,\u00a0Helen Lowe<\/span><\/a>. Helen had posted The Sparrows<\/em> on her blog as part of her ongoing\u00a0Earthquake Witness<\/em><\/span><\/a> sequence.\u00a0The opening and closing lines of The Sparrows<\/em> resonated particularly powerfully for me and seemed to speak directly into\/out of this drawing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following\u00a0the 22 February earthquake in Christchurch, the birds fled the city, rendering the broken landscape all the starker through the absence of birdsong. .\u00a0The closing lines of Helen\u2019s poem read –<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c. . .\u00a0And then, finally, they came<\/em><\/span>
\n their wings clouding the sun.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

My thanks to Helen for allowing me to \u2018borrow\u2019 the opening two lines as a title and for permission to include her poem on this exhibition.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

My thanks to you, Claire, for the joy and delight of the painting.<\/p>\n

And here, for completion, is the poem, too. (And yes, I did inflict a reading thereof on my guests \ud83d\ude09 ). See below for the painting unveiled! (With apologies for the flash flare—not part of Claire’s work!)<\/p>\n

The Sparrows<\/span><\/h3>\n

I meant it to be a poem about sparrows<\/span>
\n and how the silence that followed<\/span>
\n the February 22nd earthquake<\/span>
\n included their absent voices \u2014<\/span>
\n & not just sparrows but the starlings<\/span>
\n and blackbirds, the finches and wax-eyes<\/span>
\n that normally fill the day with their bustle<\/span>
\n about the business of living \u2026<\/span>
\n \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/span> all fallen silent,<\/span>
\n hidden away, or gone further to find food<\/span>
\n since half the city was covered<\/span>
\n in a slick of water and mud. I threw<\/span><\/p>\n

old bread onto the island of grass<\/span>
\n in our own grey sea and waited \u2026<\/span>
\n \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..\u2026<\/span> and waited.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then, finally, they came<\/span>
\n their wings clouding the sun.<\/span>
\n .<\/span>
\n \u00a9 Helen Lowe, 2011<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2013 I featured a Tuesday Poem series on ekphrastic poems (aka poems in response to works of art) and completed the series with a \u2018counter-culture\u2019: a work of art developed in response to a poem. The poem was The Sparrows, from my sequence in response to the Christchurch earthquake of February 22nd, 2011; the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27576"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27584,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27576\/revisions\/27584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}