Poetry and Art

I went to the "Poetry Jam" that was held at BYU's Museum of Art last Thursday evening and it was not quite what I had expected. When I first heard of this event, I assumed that it was going to be a poetry slam held in the main atrium of the MoA. Instead, we walked around to different pieces of art that had inspired poems for some students and faculty. The poets would then read their poems while the audience was looking at the art.

Reading and listening to poetry in this setting helped give a visual for the inspiration of the poet. Many of the poems were just describing what the art looked like, the first few even sounded more similar to creative essays.

A few poems seemed to go beyond the basic description, to the story within the painting. There was one poem that went into issues of racism, sexism, and poverty. It then went in to the Atonement and the Savior, yet the painting was a simple one. This allowed the audience to look at the painting and try to see how it would influence the poet in such a way that she was able to see so much.