You may know that in addition to my poetry I also do art, posted on my blog Claudia McGill and Her Art World. For the next several months I will be posting here a combined art/poetry project, Large Artist Sketchbook 2020.
I fill up sketchbooks with all kinds of art. Some contain images only and some of them I use the images as inspiration for poetry. In these books the image is on one page of the spread and the poetry on the other. This book is set up in this manner.
I’ll show you the image and then add the poem that goes with it. See what you think.
Homesick
Another one of those lurid red
awful hot days and when
the first blotches of rain hit the glass
Splot. A dull tapping sound
but in a squishy kind of spread out way
if you know what I mean
Splot.
I jumped back away from the window
We get them like that sometimes
I’m still getting used to it
Things are so different here
from how they were at home
One blotch and then another
bled down the smooth surface
rivulets of plum-dark purple-red
sudden memory prisms
for the scene I saw once again
but never through this window:
a brown and gray yard
back there back when back then
I saw the bare black trees
glossed clear slick and shiny
with the downpour
I saw the heavy clouds that pressed down
I felt the overcast sky enclosing my house
safe and kind. I heard the raindrops
in their small bright spatter of sound
like straight pins landing on a metal table
silver-clear lenses
each presenting a tiny view of
home
I did not cry.
Not again.
2/21/20
Large Artist Sketchbook 2020 image 6
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
Beautiful poem, it got into my heart!
Thank you! I have always disliked being away from home and when I went off to college and then continued to live here, it was a long time before I felt at home again.
The poem is very evocative and thought-provoking in the way it explores the relationship between senses, memory and emotion. I love all the colourful explosions in the artwork and especially your use of drips and drops.
Thank you. I have always been very attached to being at home and being homesick is a severe thing for me (even on weekend trips I want to go home and though I enjoy myself, my favorite part is when we point the car toward home).
I always envy people who have such a clear vision of and attachment to a place. (K)
I am that person. All my life being attached to a home, and belonging, has been a top life goal. I didn’t plan to spend my life where I have but I have grown roots here and I hope to be fortunate enough never to have to leave.
I have once again realized I can adjust to anyplace. But I have to admit this is a good one and I hope it will be the last.
Beautiful poem and image. I think I love all your paintings for this series. So vibrant and colourful.
Thank you. I am enjoying revisiting this sketchbook. It mostly was made such a while ago and just now getting posted. I have new persepctive on the words and the pictures as I come upon them again.