​Over the month of July, 2024, True Grit Art Gallery put out a Call For Poetry to local poets throughout southern New England. We asked them to submit poems for an upcoming planned art exhibition. The idea was that the gallery would select five poems  from a pool of submissions that visual artists could respond to by producing an artwork. The catch is that the gallery would assign each artist a poem to work with by a purely random, lottery process. This was done to ensure an equitable artworks to poem distribution for the planned exhibit. The results are yet to be determined but many artists have accepted the challenge by registering to participate. If you are an interested visual artist, you can still register through August 17th. Poets who submitted work can register for the visual art side as well. The art will be exhibited along with the poems when 'Poetic Visions' premieres on its opening night of Saturday, September 14 from 6-8pm. The show will then run through September 28th.

We are pleased to announce the poems we’ve chosen for our first ever poetry-inspired art exhibition, ‘Poetic Visions’!

We received so many wonderful poems from 40 submitting authors, all of which were a joy to read and reflect upon. Please know that this was never meant to be a competition. The poems we’ve selected— or chose not to select— should reflect no bearing on the poets’ writing capabilities. We would certainly never claim the authority to make that judgment. At the end of the day, our decision reflects our efforts to predict the most eclectic variety of visual art responses possible. It was extremely difficult to pick just five. Nevertheless, the poems we chose for our first ever poetry-inspired exhibition are:

Searchlight
​by Diana Cole

After a career performing as a classical singer, Diana Cole, moved to Rhode Island to pursue writing and stained glass. Being an artist herself, she is inspired to write in response to art and has organized a number of ekphrastic exhibitions. Recently, a poem was chosen for its response to an artwork by Heather Stivison at the Pleiades Gallery in NYC.  A Pushcart Prize nominee, she is published in over 60 journals including Poetry East, Spillway, Cider Press Review, Friends Journal, and Orison Books.  Her chapbook, Songs By Heart was published by Iris Press in 2018. A second full-length book, Between Selves, was published in 2023 by the Indian Press, Cyberwit.  For four years she was an editor for Crosswinds Poetry Journal. ​

Figure and Ground
by Merryn Rutledge

Winner of the 2023 poetry prize for Orison Books’ Best Spiritual Literature, Merryn Rutledge is widely published; poems are collected in Sweet Juice and Ruby-Bitter Seed (Kelsay Books.) Merryn was also a Best of the Net nominee in 2023. She teaches poetry craft, reviews poetry books by women, sings, dances, and works for social justice causes. Merryn formerly taught literature, film, and creative writing at Phillips Exeter Academy, and then, after earning a doctorate in leadership, she ran a US-based leadership development consulting firm. Merryn lives on the Massachusetts South Shore. ​

I know why mall Santas smoke butts (a fairy tale)
​by Michael Doyle

​Michael is a social worker by day and a poet/artist by night who lives in Bourne, Massachusetts with his wife and three children. He has chronicled his world within the pages of his poetry journal for the past three decades, finding solace in the freedom of expression in free verse, allowing to be both creative and raw in his exploration of life’s obstacles and blessings. 
His writing is majorly influenced by literary figures such as Jim Carroll, Saul Williams, Nick Flynn, and Charles Bukowski. As a reader, you will capture the essence of human experience with unflinching honesty and vivid imagery. With each poem, he invites readers into his world, sharing glimpses of his raw vulnerability and firm commitment to truth. Through his words, he seeks to paint vivid images in the minds of his audience, leaving an indelible mark.

The Sun Does Not Have a Favorite Child
by Jaqi Holland

Jaqi Holland is a poet living north of Boston who holds an MA in Writing & Publishing from Emerson College. Her work has appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, The Christian Science Monitor, Humana Obscura, and Flora/Fauna: a Collection of Nature Poetry & Photography. 

Performance for One
by Kendra Tornheim

I grew up in a family where art, music, and antiques-hunting played major roles.  I took classes in a variety of mediums all through school and beyond, including creative writing and poetry, while getting degrees at Brown University in Medieval Studies and Computer Science.  In 2007 I began to create art jewelry and quickly focused on work with wire and found objects.  Several years later I discovered the wonderful effects of alcohol inks on brass, where repeated layers of gloss varnish give the look of enamels without using a kiln.

I continue to pay the bills with a job in the tech sector, but the ability to work remotely allowed me and my husband to move to Middleboro to a home with more studio space, where I continue experimenting with new art media.
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