If you have followed Homegrown Stories over the years you know that many of the videos created for the project can be described as visual poetry- much like written words, images interact, expand, complement or challenge each other.<\/p>\n
This year Homegrown Stories is pushing the visual poetics of the project by asking a poet to be our inspirational collaborator.\u00a0 For this first installment, poet Melissa Ginsburg has submitted \u201cPastoral\u201d.<\/p>\n
We specifically asked our video artists to interpret the poem, rather than depend on Melissa\u2019s reading of her poem.\u00a0 The videos that result are like the poem- dark, quiet, haunting, revelatory, brutal, jarring.<\/p>\n
Pastoral, by Melissa Ginsburg<\/p>\n
I was unincorporated
\nI was without a body
\nI was lots
\nNot lots yet parcels<\/p>\n
I was ground
\nWhere the pipes will go
\nI was shrubs I was
\nBrush and the space<\/p>\n
Between shacks I lacked
\nGovernance I was
\nLean-tos I was dens
\nIn the earth and<\/p>\n
Roots of the weak
\nSweetgum I was pear
\nAnd turtle sunning
\nI was lungs un-<\/p>\n
Breathing I was the site
\nOn the horse\u2019s neck
\nWhere bats came
\nNightly to feed I was<\/p>\n
The blood coagulating
\nInto morning I was
\nWaiting for full dark
\nAgain I was waiting<\/p>\n
For the wound
\nTo reopen I was led
\nTo a tree a weak
\nTree strung with nets<\/p>\n
I was the bat hoping
\nTo be caught I
\nCouldn\u2019t heal myself
\nFast enough<\/p>\n
You can hear Melissa recite \u201cPastoral\u201d at:<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2020\/06\/08\/pastoral<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you have followed Homegrown Stories over the years you know that many of the videos created for the project can be described as visual poetry- much like written words, images interact, expand, complement or challenge each other. This year … Continue reading