Words and Art Reading featured poetry and prose inspired by Ben Butler’s UnBounded

August 24, 2015, by

IMG_4154As a proud UH graduate student (go Coogs!), I don’t often make it to the Rice University campus. But on a serene Wednesday evening, during the first true break in the heat, when the hallowed walkways and archways were glazed with late-summer rain, I found myself entering the Rice Art Gallery, attending my first ever Words and Art reading.

Coordinated by Mary Wemple, a local poet-artist, the Words and Art reading series has been going strong since 2011. This particular reading featured poetry and prose inspired by artist Ben Butler’s sculpture/installation Unbounded.

Consisting of 10,000 hand-pegged poplar sticks, arranged into organically-shaped, three-dimensional grids, the work was magnificent. It managed to simultaneously draw attention to the scale and chaos of human behavior, and create a calming landscape for reflection.

IMG_4155Through a public call for submissions, a dozen writers had been chosen in advance, and their work was printed in a handsome program distributed to audience members.

Wemple promotes the opportunity to Houstonians through local readings such as First Fridays, Public Poetry, and the Archway Readings—she also encourages students from Quail Valley Middle School, Grace School, and beyond to take part at the all-ages events.

The tradition of ekphrasis is rich, from Homer’s description of Achilles’s shield to Keat’s Grecian urn to Auden on Bruegel and beyond. As an audience member, it was thrilling to hear the diversity of perspectives on one work.

IMG_4160The tradition of ekphrasis is rich, from Homer’s description of Achilles’s shield to Keat’s Grecian urn to Auden on Bruegel and beyond. As an audience member, it was thrilling to hear the diversity of perspectives on one work.

  • —Irma Metherd, saw “a dream playground, vibrant / with light and joy, the luminous quality of the birch tree,”
  • —Mallory Wagner, a precocious sixth-grader, explored the idea of figurative claustrophobia: “I ran / down paths / through grids / until I was trapped”
  • —Holly Walrath asked, “What does the predator think / as he walks the city streets / of the scaffold, the naked wolf heart?”
  • —On turning 18, Joyce Chen reflects: “The tomorrow I want is a shadow. It lengthens and it shortens, and it’s never near my fingertips at all.”
  • —Signaling the future of literary communities, J-Coby Wayne skyped in to share her poem, which started darkly, but ended on a note of positive resolution: “I enter the bamboo house now, / air and light / and full of promise”
  • —Jane Chance used an erasure strategy in her poem “The Integrity of Structure” and included an epigraph by Ben Butler, with a sample like, “Chinese / negative space / manipulating / voids move”
  • IMG_4162—Diane DeGaetani’s poem moved over the evolution of humankind, marking how “humans traversed in search of stones / for structure of earthen bone”
  • —Randall Nolty contributed a neatly rhyming poem (ABAB), ending with the thought that “Vacant is the norm, although / Here in time and space are we”
  • —The title of Vanessa Zimmer-Powell’s poem, “City of Sticks, City of Lemon, City of Mud,” resounded throughout her piece
  • —Neil Ellis Orts revealed Joni Mitchell to be his inspiration, opening with a snippet of lyrics, and included the description “This artist with sticks and skill puts me before his honeycomb of columbaria”
  • —Lastly , Chuck Wemple wrote a beautiful apostrophe to his brother and his “knowledge of, to show me the beauty in uniform, clean lines”

Despite all of this insight and texture, the reading itself lasted less than a half-hour, with an additional open mic afterwards. Its zippy timing, kinship with art and design, and variety of performers make this a special evening out—and the elegant atmosphere is an added plus!

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