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An evening of electric visual art and poetry
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"Poets Beyond Reason," held Wednesday night (March 4) at The Kirkland Museum of Fine and Contemporary Art, 13th Street and Pearl near downtown Denver, was an event I should have told you about before it happened rather than after, but I figure taking you there through a little coverage is at least second best.
The program, which contained 24 printed poems from a group of local poets who call themselves "PBR," or "Poets Beyond Reason," came with the price of admission, $6, and was a bargain considering what quality poetry was contained in it. Of course, that just proves the plight of writers whose work is now valued at less than pennies, as I read about just today in an article titled "Is writing for the rich?" by Francis Wilkinson, executive editor of The Week.
That cheap program booklet, or chapbook, also described the event as "An evening of ekphrastic poetry," which meant the 10 poets in PBR picked a work of art within the museum — currently holding an exhibit called "Colorado Abstract: Paintings and Sculpture" — as inspiration for poems they wrote after observing the art works, and then read their poems to the attending audience.
Denver Poet Laureate Chris Ransick was delighted with the result, as was I.
It was fun, and it demonstrated that a group of lyric poets can make their art just as vocal as slam poets, even if the poetry is less rhythmic and less rhymed.
The Poets Beyond Reason are Dee Casalaina, J Diego Frey, j. Fossenbell, Ginny Hoyle, Allison Inman, Joan Logsdon, Andrea Moore, Jeni Rinner, Barbara Sorensen and Roger Wehling, who, I have disclosed here before, is my cousin from my mother's and his mother's "Casey" side of our family.
I really liked my cousin's poem "The Red Glass Iron," which he wrote after observing a Corning glass iron in one of the museum's many display cases for an extraordinary collection of sculture and artifacts. Wehling's poem was simple and brief (and, so, easily contained in this post):
neatness is
next as
the red glass
iron
is impressed
upon
a wrinkled brain
on fire.
Which the poet said also was inspired by William Carlos Williams.
I'm not sure how you might check out these poets' work further, but you can certainly check out the museum, a fairly unknown treasure chest of modern art in Denver.
Some of the poets who were reading last night admitted that their visit to the remarkable place was their first. It was mine, too, but I don't intend for it to be my last.
