Image Text Image

Poets and artists

Nick Pearson

I am a poet and have found that collaborating with artists offers a valuable way to develop my creative approach to subjects. Not only do artists provide a fresh set of eyes with which to see and interpret things, but they can also provide a particular type of reading response to written work – one that is imagistic and/or textural and helps the writer understand how their words connect and translate themselves. Whether the words come first or the art, the results are always interesting.

Poems - Reflection Exhibition – Green Wood Centre, Coalbrookdale, Telford. 22nd May – 5th June 2011

Quaker Burial Ground
Linda Nevill and I visited the burial ground on separate occasions and discussed our perceptions of the site and its surrounding characteristics. Both of us were intrigued by the simplicity of the site, its densely packed, unmarked graves and the two tall redwood trees. I was particularly interested in the way the modest gravestones, many of them inscribed with the names of eminent local families, were stacked against the brick walls of the rectangular shaped enclosure.



Linda Neville created artwork influenced by this poem.
Read ‘Quaker Burial Ground'.

The Shape of Iron
I visited the Museum of Iron and the old furnace in the grounds to more fully understand the smelting processes that led to the industrialisation of the Coalbrookdale area. I was interested in the shape of the furnace itself and the rituals of work that attended it. Justin Nicholson asked me for my ‘word interpretations’ of the site and worked with a first draft of my poem ‘The Shape of Iron’.



Justin Nicholson created artwork influenced by this poem.
Read ‘The Shape of Iron'.
Read ‘Museum History Notes'.

Coalbrookdale Foundry, c1870
The title refers to a photograph, and the poem is about that photograph. In the picture the foundry workers are all wearing hats and my research into the era suggested that these had a certain occupational significance. They were to be the original theme of the poem, which was initially titled ‘In the House of Hats’, but then the focus shifted to one particular character in the photograph. Colin Derricott’s work makes a connection with both the era and the ambience of the photograph.



Colin Derricott created artwork influenced by this poem.
Read ‘Coalbrookdale Foundry, c1870'.

Poems - Rock and Fossil Festival Exhibition September 2009

Lapworth Museum Stillborn
While researching rocks and fossils I visited the Lapworth Museum of Geology at Birmingham University. This fascinating museum contains some high quality fossil specimens and I was struck by one labelled ‘Stillborn Baby Reptila Jurassic'. This seemed to be a very precise, authoritative statement and started me thinking about the meaning of preservation and how it informs our understanding of evolution.



Justin Nicholson created artwork influenced by this poem.
Listen and read ‘Lapworth Museum Stillborn'.

Word Search
Linda Nevill and I discussed the geological processes of compression and sedimentation and how this might be interpreted in prints and poetry. One strand of the discussion was around how words might change over time, how they might break up or metamorphose into something completely different like rocks do. This initial discussion influenced the concept of my poem.

‘Word Search.’ In writing it I also had in mind the 19th century geologist Roderick Murchison who frequented the Dudley area and gave lectures on his theories to packed audiences in the limestone caves.



Linda Nevill created artwork influenced by this poem.
Listen and read ‘Word Search’

Interview with a Trilobite
In a previous Image Text Image exhibition I was interested in the insect sculptures created by Rob McGuinness, specifically what he describes as their ‘suggestive characteristics.’ Fossils have very distinct forms, none more so than the trilobite. This insect-like creature has always been a famous name in the Wren’s Nest nature reserve and in my poem I wanted to bring its imagined personality to life within a contemporary context. Rob also makes connections, through form and colour, to contemporary street cultures.

The trilobite also makes an appearance, in one guise or another, in the work of other artists.



Listen and read ‘Interview with a Trilobite’