I’ve embarked on a year-long project with other Gloucestershire artists to document a particular nearby spot or object. I’ve chosen the only tree in my garden (a silver birch) which I’m recording in many different ways in the form of a concertina book.
My monthly poetry group continues to inspire many new creative projects, including this earlier poem I wrote “in the voice of the artist’s sketchbook”.
The Artist’s Sketchbook
I wait in silence, one among the many, wait for your knowing hand to recognise my qualities.
I have it in me to inspire, for I am born of other practised hands, the craft of centuries.
I know the heft and touch, the tone and shape of your desire, your need to anchor your identities.
I can be what firms the ground beneath your feet: what links you to the world, your hold on life’s complexities.
I give you courage to take risks, make leaps into your dreams, transform the everyday in re-imagined memories.
I am your stay against all loss.