Paint Me a Poem: Poetry and Art...Plus Dance!

Since April is National Poetry Month and today is also Poetry Friday, I didn't want to miss the chance to post some more dance-related poems by my new friend Justine Rowden -- this time from her book Paint Me a Poem: Poems Inspired by Masterpieces of Art. 

A few years ago, when Justine was working at the National Portrait Gallery, she noticed that a lot of people had no reaction at all when they stood in front of a painting they hadn't seen before. This gave her an idea!

"I felt my first endeavor ought to be a book that proposes a way to look at any painting and find the spark, the joy, in that work," she says. "Forget historical references. Look for the passion in the art!" And thus her work began on Paint Me a Poem.

For the book, Justine chose 14 paintings from the National Gallery of Art and created poems to go along with them. "Each poem suggests just one possible way to look at that painting in a new way," she says. Here are a couple of my favorites, which both reflect Justine's love of dance. Yes, she is a kindred spirit!

Dancin'

Green Plums by Joseph Decker, c. 1885.
Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Green plums rolling
Yeah! rockin' and rollin'

Out of their box

Onto the stage

Ready to swing their stems,

Moving in rhythm

To a juicy tune. 

The beat, it gets to them--

Swaying side to side, 

They go even faster

Until finger-snapping hands 

Put them back in their box. 

Moving White Fluffs

Meadow by Alfred Sisley, 1875.
Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

The sky is full

Of fuzzy white polka dots.

As they move on, 

Do you think

Those dots are really

Dancing the polka

While they drift away?

Doing the polka

Takes time to learn

And where could they

Hear the music

To get the dance just right?

So, maybe it's not

The polka at all they're doing. 

Maybe it's just a slow glide 

They make up

As they go along. 

Then why do you suppose

They call them "Polka dots" --

Those funny white fluffs

In the blue, blue sky?

Beautiful poems, right? So what does Justine hope that children will take away from the book? "I would like to think that children will look at the paintings, really connecting with the art, and perhaps even write original poems about the paintings themselves,"she says. I hope that some adults have that reaction, too!

Find out more about Paint Me a Poem at www.paintmeapoem.com. Irene Latham at Live Your Poem is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup today, so you can find more poetry for children and adults there, too!