Calligraphy and Drawings by Thomas Ingmire
Poetry by Robert Sheppard
Musical composition by Clifford Burke
Unique Book
| The images are a few pages from a visual/verbal book titled Afghanistan. It is the result of a project that involved a series of back and forth collaborative responses between myself and the poet, Robert Sheppard, and musician, Clifford Burke. Initially I created a series of abstract calligraphic drawings which were presented to Robert. He chose one of the images and aligned it with the poem Afghanistan which was from a recently published collection of poems titled Warrant Error. Working with the chosen image and the poem, I developed a number of sheets...some images and some with the text. These were eventually assembled in book form and the poem was introduced, in brief phrases juxtaposed to the images. Clifford Burke, taking inspiration from the final book, created the musical score. Three of the spreads are shown here. The work was part of a larger project involving eleven poets and three musicians. The book is now part of the University of Denver, Penrose Library, Special Collections. | AFGHANISTAN Like a figure in a dream of perfect falling Like something from somewhere like hell You were the dark-eyed girl who crept out Before the pink meat dawn to spy The growling machines while the whole town Still dreamt of exactly what she saw Night vision green flecked with sparks And clouds of vectoral vapour pouring across Sun-baked gravel where a human head severe And severed scarved in crackling plastic Resurrected. She dived through coils of barbed wire She ran her oily fingers along the sealed walls Of the outsiders as though reading their secret script Or leaving her own |
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