You may know that in addition to my artwork I also write poetry (posted on my blog Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That?). For the next several months I will be posting here a combined art/poetry project, Large Artist Sketchbook 2020.
I fill up sketchbooks with all kinds of art. Some contain images only and some of them I use the images as inspiration for poetry. In these books the image is on one page of the spread and the poetry on the other. This book is set up in this manner.
I’ll show you the image and then add the poem that goes with it. See what you think.
The Personality of a Place
Dinner over we
walked along this one
stretch of shore hills and
drifts of smooth soft stones
accommodating
bare feet used to shoes
making no kind of
promises though then
you cut your foot on
a broken bottle
sticking out sudden
like it just sat up
and bit you we picked
our steps careful a
wind coming up there
was mottled sky there
was a feeling that
said to and so we
came back across the
rocks carrying you
in the twilight first
night at the lake thank
goodness no stitches
and the rest of the
vacation was full
of nothing much your
foot it healed up fast
you were on water
skis the next week and
I still remember
that summer with such
pleasure as long as
I don’t allow me
to think how I knew
it had decided
about us. You too?
2/6/20
Large Artist Sketchbook 2020 Image 2
each line 5 syllables
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
I love the rhythm and structure of this poem. It really captures that stream of consciousness quality of a recalled memory and the dual perspectives of how we felt about the events then and now.
THank you. I did several poems in this five syllable line format and nothing since, I am reminded of it now and would like to try again for the reason you mention – the stream of consciousness that flows – once you get started the story tells itself.