I’m very pleased to introduce you to  Jennifer L William’s response in poetry to one of my recent Lindisfarne paintings.

In this video she recites a poem in response to ‘Stormy Sky, Lindisfarne’..

It always feels magical to me when Jennifer plucks poetic inspiration from a painting, and draws viewers in to the meaning behind the image.

This is Jennifer’s personal response, but as with previous poems it gets to the heart of what I wanted to paint and communicate. In an earlier blog I spoke about the process of visiting an island like Eigg or Lindisfarne, as a painter. There’s a wish to be more present, or to see beyond the obvious, I described it in an earlier post as peeling back layers.

Jennifer’s poem takes this further, and expresses in words what I try to explore in paint. This line from her poem; When you write to the light, you write beyond the grave expresses to me the idea that we can only perceive with our limited human senses, and in the process of responding as a painter, or poet, you hope to see beyond your own thoughts, beyond a mirror.

The final line; you are the light could be read in a spiritual sense, or in the sense that we are the light, we make landscape what it is, or project our thoughts on to it. It makes me think of Shelley’s poem Mont Blanc;

..and what were thou, and earth, and stars and sea, if to the human mind’s imaginings, silence and solitude were vacancy?

Contemplating Jennifer’s poem has been a pleasure (especially on these dark winter evenings!). Tomorrow I’ll post a second poem and video, in response to the recent painting ‘Castle Point, Lindisfarne’.

Jennifer L William’s poetry can be viewed on this website: http://jlwilliamspoetry.co.uk/