A couple of days ago I got an email from poet Margaret Bednar. She heads a group of poets who all gather on a blog called Imaginary Garden with Real Toads. “We are a core group of about 20 strong, but offer our challenges up for anyone to participate in. My monthly challenge is highlighted on the left hand side of the blog “Artistic Interpretations with Margaret”.” And she wrote that she wanted her next challenge to be writing poems inspired by some of my visual poems, my videos, if I was ok with that.
OK with that? Honestly I wondered if anyone looked at my videos anymore. I was more than ok with it, I love the idea. So with my blessing, the poets of Imaginary Garden with Real Toads took off. Nine poets combining their own thoughts and experiences with twelve of my videos.
Margaret wrote the poem below Winter Sunflower which is on her blog Art Happens 365, My Poetry Journal. The other poets are Kerry O’Connor (lead toad), Mama Zen, Sherry Blue Sky, Kay Davies, humbird, Hannah Gosselin, Ellen Wilson, Susie Clevenger, Sumana Roy. And you can see their poems when you click on their names at the bottom of post “Maria Wulf’s Visual Poems” on the blog Imaginary Garden with Real Toads. I wish I could write about each one of them, but my mind is buzzing with the words and imagery and emotions each poem evokes. Enjoy….
Winter Sunflower
Goldfinches have long since
picked you dry and flittered away
after the crucifixion.
A crown once awash with light
now rests upon drooping neck,
tarnished not with pity, but sacrifice.
Your once joyous face
only hints of sun-drenched days,
yet the tappity splat of thawing, frosted air
is the beginning of springs’s marching band
and your resurrection.
by Margaret Bednar, November 1, 2013
I am so happy to get the chance to thank you personally for your generosity in sharing your visual pieces with us. I have not been writing much in the last few months, but viewing your work opened a door in my imagination and I am well pleased with the piece I wrote. Many thanks, Maria.
Thank you Kerry, as I said you too have inspired me to make more visual poems. This is some the best stuff that happen on the internet.
It was wonderful collaborating with you! I hope to do this again in the future (as well as individual posts for myself) so keep video taping your “visual poems”.
You’ve inspired me to get back to my visual poems Margaret. Thanks