Poetry illustrated

cross cultural poetry slam

Mahmoud Darwish - The eternity of the cactus

Remco Campert - Het onttakelde huis

Lord Byron - So we'll go no more a-roving

 To keep my fingers from going rusty while being busy mostly with business and other left brain activity, I started on a series of illustrations inspired by poetry. My favourite poem is by Mahmoud Darwish - the Eternity of the cactus.  The lyrical aspect makes for an abundance of visual clues. I used the poems to force my generally random drawings towards a topic. Poetry offers a lot of visual clues, the trick is more what you leave out than what you put in. Let's be honest: some of these poems deserve an entire graphic novel. However well you can illustrate it, words still say more than a thousand lines and colors. From top to bottom: Mahmoud Darwish - The eternity of the cactus (Palestine), Remco Campert - Het onttakelde huis (the Netherlands), Lord Byron - so we'll go no more a roving (UK).