Within the gallery
It’s more common to write poems about works of art than the gallery that houses them, but Alison Chisholm is impressed by this attempt
POETRY WORKSHOP
Alison Chisholm
Poets have always been inspired by other works of art, and Gill Hawkins of Wimborne, Dorset was attending last year’s Writers’ Summer School when an illustration in a book prompted her to start a poem. She says: ‘It amazes me how by looking at a picture, or reading a piece of poetry, you can come up with something new’ – but really, this is not amazing. One piece of creativity lights the touchpaper in another artist’s mind, and for many poets this is the regular route into a new piece. When it happened for Gill, Gallery was the result.
While it’s common practice to write poems about the actual paintings, writing about the gallery that houses them is more unusual. The physical description is delivered with a pleasing tautness of language, and it’s set in the context of the works on display. We see life’s visions watercolour caught and among the portraits, note how framed eyes look to the future.