Narrative Sculpture at Sanibel School

On the morning of December 15, the 14 members of teacher Andie McCarter’s clay art class displayed their sculpture and performed their poems for an audience of proud parents, teachers and poets. After creating works of sculpture, the students had been asked to practice “ekphrasis” i.e. create a poem inspired by a classmate’s sculpture. To assist the students in their poetic efforts, I visited the Art Classroom on two occasions to give examples of famous ekphratic poems and demonstrate techniques for writing poems about other works of Art. The result was a unique morning of student poetry performance and display of sculptural art. Thank you, Teacher McCarter and student of the Clay Art program for a memorable experience.

Below are my own ekphratic effort and a few student examples.

Narrative Sculptures: A Sonnet

Narrative Sculptures, what stories they tell,

Sculpted and written on Sanibel:

Blue sights, blue beaches, dark versus light,

Underwater scenes glowing at night.

Brown deer hide away in forests, lost lands

Unlock, revealing jungles in the sands,

Mushroom palaces, and the mystery

Of Six Ways to mix a Snowman Martini.

Narrative Sculptures with feet of clay,

Speak to us in their silent way

Of shapes and dreams and thoughts within

The Kiln of Mind where all Arts begin —

Narrative Sculptures, what stories they tell,

Sculpted and written on Sanibel. JP

BLUE SIGHT by Halle DuPre

Blue sight

slithering blues

aqua, sea green, purple, azul

a unicorn tears through my blue sight

wrapped in coils,

in prison

desperately attempting to escape

braids of clay

BLUE BEACH by Grant Reel

Green turtles go out to sea

leaving behind footprints of what used to be

deep blue waves come crashing by

on this blue beach nearby

beautiful coral filled with surprises

look like flowers of all shapes and sizes

This is Blue Beach,

the bluest of them all

large and small waves come

they rise and they fall

Where green turtles go

out to sea

leaving behind footprints of

what used to be

DARK vs LIGHT by Izzy DeCosta

Dark is night

with no light

creatures come out

scurry about

light vs dark

light shines bright

unlike any other night

THE UNDERWATER SCENE by Olin Peck

The underwater scene

seems to me

an eel

a bird

in harmony

there’s green

there’s purple

all blended together

which forms an illusion

that makes me think whether,

whether or not what it seems to be

A mystery below the sea

and the boxes

with curlicues

fills me with surprise

providing no clues

of whatever, laying inside

the deep blue ocean

sees with our eyes

could there be more

than the underwater scene?