these browns
these hues you use
the rumpus in your heart
media rust replaces
paste in Redon blues
dawn’s tongues of brazen light
turn after-flare impending cloud
your shield’s edge etched
with cumin dust
a still lens map pin clipped
aren’t you flummoxed by
the cute way stars
stay shackled fast
to night?
Simon Marsh has been an enthusiastic, skillful & enabling collaborator for many years, mainly in the context of musical performance. Much of his recent music has been created with the Milan-based band Place. In the field of poetry, my own collaborations with Simon resulted in The Pistol Tree Poems (Shearsman, 2011). His poetry also includes Bar Magenta (Many Press), The Ice Glossaries (Poetical Histories) & The Vinyl Hat Years (Tack/Many Press). Born in 1960, Simon grew up in Kent and moved to Milan in 1984. In 2008, he moved to the village of Valverde in the Oltrepò Pavese, and then to Varzi, where he now lives. Recently he has been involved in a fascinating collaboration - entitled Ping - with the artist Rebecca Forster.
Rebecca was born in 1960 in St.Albans, England, & specialized in sculpture at the Norwich School of Art. Her work is inspired by archaeology, literature, maps & plans, amongst other things, & is expressed in drawings and sculptures made in paper, and in etched and beaten zinc or brass. From pencils to spray-paint, from ceramics to murals and artist’s books, her work reflects the countries she has lived in and the cities she has explored – from Cyprus, Greece and Italy, to New York, Piacenza, Verona, Zurich & Milan.
The images & poems so far generated for the Ping project are each of substantial interest & value in themselves. But it is in the ongoing process, & the shifting interrelationships between the various visual images & texts that the magic of the series really lies. The textures, lines, colours & image-associations flicker backwards & forwards between picture & poem, revealing & refracting aspects of collaborative creativity that never settle into a fixed or final formation.
So far there are 6 pictures & 6 poems. It's good to know that more are on their way, & also that the first group will be appearing soon in an online magazine. It seems to me that the series would make an extremely handsome book. I wonder if there are any interested publishers out there.
So far there are 6 pictures & 6 poems. It's good to know that more are on their way, & also that the first group will be appearing soon in an online magazine. It seems to me that the series would make an extremely handsome book. I wonder if there are any interested publishers out there.
