50 noisy poets take class at MoNA

Over 50 willing poets of various accomplishments and ages – and an overwhelmingly female audience – overflowed the Museum of Northwest Art's second floor meeting space Saturday afternoon for a free one-hour poetry class with Seattle poet Susan Rich. She spoke to them for maybe 20 minutes before setting them free to roam and examine the museum's art, charging them with putting themselves into the paintings and to pull something original out of the art by their written words.

This is ekphrastic poetry, poems written specifically in response to visual images. "The sister art of painting cannot speak and poems cannot show color," she explained to her wordsmiths. "Words are a way into art as a poet. Look until images look back at you. ... Enter into the images."

Rich shared slides of paintings and sculpture and read poems, including from Rainer Maria Rilke, showing classic examples.

Before she set the class loose the last half hour before the museum closed, she encouraged them to find "what is outside the frame, or beyond" and asked them "What is in your mind and unleashes the imagination?"

The 50-plus poets spread out to examine paintings and sculptures on both floors, most with pen or pencil and paper but some with laptops. A few took photos to take the art home with them to continue their work past the 5 o'clock closing.

A first draft, whether a painting or a poem, is just that anyway, a start.

Rich is the author of six books of poetry and teaches at Highline College.