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.
Shadorma 283
Said goodbye
homesick in minutes
swallow it
and move on.
The train releases its brakes.
Your heart lurches. Go.
4/30/20
Large Artist Sketchbook 2020 image 25
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
Oh—this is so poignant. I can imagine so many scenarios of who this person is.
Moving from my childhood home to live far away as an adult, there were many greetings and then of course partings. I never have been able to say goodbye to anyone or anything very easily.
💙
I like the way the art work is divided into different panels. That composition suggests not only the idea of a literal journey but also the emotional thought process the narrator travels through.
I chose photos that made a story to me when I drew this, though I did not articulate the feelings until I wrote the poem, and then, it was very quick, because I thought the same thing about the grouping, there is the actual journey and then there are all the feelings surrounding it.
Perfect blend of images and poem!
Claudia, I enjoy the expressiveness in your poems, and I particularly love the fearless uninhibited style of your sketches – lovely!
Thank you, you have made my day with this comment. I came to writing and to art later in life and I will forever be grateful that I am here.