Poetry of Glass

December 19, 2018

Lino Tagliapietra, Avventurine Installation (2017)

Overview

During our recent Poetry of Glass workshop, poet and Auburn professor Janelle Green introduced teens to ekphrasis writing inspired by the exhibition, Lino Tagliapietra: Master of Beauty. She prompted the teens to find three pieces in the exhibition, look at them and think about the musicality, the colors, and the movement in them. Once they did that, the teens were tasked with writing poems inspired by each piece but in different styles. They could rhyme or not. The poems could be long or short. Each different to challenge the teens and their writing.

Places

Norah Willis, age 17

There’s people
There’s places
There’s towns
There’s faces

We move, we live, we breathe
We are in a way, an epiphany

Lines and borders dived our human lands
Though we are all not that different in the times of sands

We are all born
We all die
We have our lows
And we have our highs

We are all created the same,
Though we come in different shapes and sizes

In a lot of ways we are like a vase
One with many shapes

Love your quirks
Love other’s changes
Love your skin
Love other’s fazes

Accept change
Though it’s hard
But not accepting it
Will leave us scars

Be the clay
Change as your shaped
Love your crazy
And love those who are sane

Lino Tagliapietra, Avventurine Installation (2017)

Untitled

Elizabeth Efferson, age 17

Glass leaves, like water droplets.
Shattering when they meet the ground.

Lino Tagliapietra, Clodia (2016)

Father

Vivian Cunningham, age 18

A S and a C
The initials of a father
The initials of my father
The initials of someone strong
Someone loving
Kind
Cheerful
There
A S and a C
The initials of my father.

Lino Tagliapietra, Fenice

Crisp

Tamara Phillips, age 16

Lapis gemstones, bright and blue
Always remind me of you
Warm embraces, or pleasant surprises
You’re the sunsets to my sunrises
Rigid and cold,
Many fear you
But to me, your heart is clear to see through
Yes, you’ve caused plenty of trouble
And you’re not easy to get along with
Yet there’s not a way to find another
That could steal your show
And you should know,
That just like spring,
You’re quite a great thing
One of my favorite seasons of all
Just after fall

Lino Tagliapietra, Kuala (2007)

The Tempest

Jordan Scott, age 17

And I was a child again, running by the sea,
I was laughing loudly, with my mother chasing me.
I can almost smell the air.
I can almost touch the sand.
I can almost feel my sister
As she took my hand.
Then I saw the storm,
I saw my calm destroyed
The waves crashed towards me violently
Then I felt a void.
I remember being scared at the suddenness of the storm.
It is a storm in a child’s eyes.
And all of the fears they form.

Lino Tagliapietra, London (2017)

Tower

Kamaryn Ellison, age 17

A spiraling tower.
Is in the distance.
Stretching toward the sky.
It disappears into the clouds.
The heavens open and shower.
The traveler puts up resistance.
Carried on the wind is a yell of “Why.”
The trees everywhere are like a crowd.
In a cave the traveler cowers.
Still the tower is in an upright stance.
The traveler travels and at night arrives.
Having found true shelter the traveler is proud.

Lino Tagliapietra, Spiral (2016)

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