Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday Roundup is hosted today by Dori Reads.

My selection is "Heart to Heart: new poems inspired by twentieth-century American art" edited by Jan Greenberg.

Greenberg has compiled a wonderful collection of poets from Sandy Asher to Jane Yolen and artists Pacita Abad to Grant Wood that includes names that are well-known and others perhaps less familiar, but well worth attention.  Greenberg explains in the introduction that the poetry is divided into four sections: Stories "conjure a memory or tell an anecdote" -- Voices "in which the poet steps inside the artwork and assumes the voice of the object or person depicted there" -- Impressions "examine the elements of the artwork and offer vibrant word pictures" -- and Expressions "explores aspects of visual form that concern the nature of art and the artist."

Greenberg offers readers a fresh and inspiring opportunity to look at art with a poet's eye.   The introduction provides an informative overview of coming delights -- as in her discussion of Janine Pommy Vega's use of metaphor that spins the swirling red petals of Georgia O'Keeffe's "Poppy" into a flamenco dancer's skirt. The book concludes with brief biographies about the poets and artists.