My blog friend Matt has brought a poem of mine to visual life! Take a look.
© 2023 Matt “M” Snyder, The Art of M & AProlificPotpourri.Art All Words & Images contained herein cannot be shared or used in any way possible without written consent & notification of the author of this blog Kerfuffle Komics: How We Do Things Here and It’s a Good Way WORDS: Claudia McGill copyright 2022 The original […]
Kerfuffle Komics: How We Do Things Here and It’s a Good Way… — The Art of M.
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.
Well, you who
have come to my door
and for what
aim? What end?
What do you say? Is it safe
to greet you to smile
to ask you
to come inside? No.
I must not
and yet I
loathe the hostile aloofness
I sham. Forgive me.
Large Artist Sketchbook 2020 image 31
shadorma chain
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.
Pass through that section of the woods,
the claw is going to reach out for you,
they say
the old man and his
stiff-armed reach and his talons
sharpened on a rock
that
the old bird
straggle feathers blowing in the stiff wind
he could warn you where
but I think he’s friends with the old man.
That’s what they say. Don’t trust him.
The bright blue sky laughs.
You run along the line of branchless leafless lifeless trees
long-dead roots in dark damp soil
trunks riddled with insect holes
the wind rising and when the gray clouds move in
the scene is set. You run.
There are other routes home but
this is always the one you take
There is something you like about the gamble
the taunting of the old man and the bird
the escaping this one more time
the safe menace
of the known unknown
that everyone knows and runs from
the known unknown
you run with.
5/1/20
5/4/20
Large Artist Sketchbook 2020 image 30
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.
In the hectic city
a man takes a bubble bath
a pigeon watches on the windowsill.
A cat on the sidewalk
bewilders itself
with the many options the world offers
to a cat on the loose.
Someone drops a box of eggs in the grocery.
Limp sheets in frolic patterns droop from the clothesline.
That fellow who stands on the corner
performing scenes from Shakespeare
is doing Macbeth this morning. The traffic speeds by
heedless. Too bad. He is quite good in this role.
5/1/20
Large Artist Sketchbook 2020 image 29
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.
washed-in blue-gray sky
hovers over tired
sallow yellow stained stucco
garage
peeling jumble of windows doors purposes
apartment
up a flight of rickety
stairs don’t look safe but must be
proof
a man stomps on out the apartment door
lights up soon as he sets foot on the landing
and
he does not fall through.
Cloud of smoke wrap him up.
dead tree peels itself
sheds bark on grass rough-cut some time back
sheds shadow on row of sunflowers
they shift twist sway in the wind
concentrate on
inch by inch inching into the sky
their huge ragged-edge dinner plate heads
seeds planted by who knows who
could be somebody with an idea
that things could be another way could be
wanting some color could be liked the look of
sunflowers framed by a kitchen window.
bees buzz.
5/1/20
5/4/20
Large Artist Sketchbook 2020 image 28
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.
In what fairy tale did you speak your first words?
What magic made you
a flower in a garden a wise frog friend
a seer
wearing a mended apron and a divided mind
who sees me as I am with one eye
and with the other
knows me as I might be?
What spell cast over your house knitted its roof
embroidered its windows
What hand colored in the empty spaces
with feathered strokes of hope?
5/1/20
Large Artist Sketchbook 2020 image 27
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.
You who watch us as we approach and pass –
a Jester in green rainboots a Chicken
grinning with all his teeth – and then
there is you
and your sideways glance away –
Who are you with your two minds
and both so disapproving?
Oh foolish creature
with your sub-divided thoughts
who looks askance at our outfits
our strut our prance
our chests-out brass-band confidence
our big smiles. We know who we are.
Can you say the same?
5/1/20
Large Artist Sketchbook 2020 image 26
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.
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
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.
Camouflaged
I hang back. I hide.
How did you
coax me out
and place this warm sun of hope
into my sad heart?
4/24/20
Large Artist Sketchbook 2020 image 24
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.
This little house
side-scraped by wire-branch trees
balances on a boulder pile
hanging high above purple lines of seawater
listens to the waves slosh around the basin
it sits on the edge of
a circle three thousand or more
east west miles and edged by ruined cliff
Staked into place by the
infinite lines beginning at the center
and radiating out to end up here
whose name no one knows
and
it doesn’t matter anyway because
Nobody comes here
ever
except for the cool blue night sun
that every evening
sits down in the sky to keep watch
arranging a yellow-green cloud
over the house
like a warm blanket
and you. It’s for you
and you say:
Oh this little house is
exactly
what I need.
Thank you.
4/23/20
Large Artist Sketchbook 2020 image 23
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
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