Seeking inspiration for poems one winter, I decided to turn to some of my favorite art: luminous paintings from the seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish Golden Age that produced such masters as Rembrandt and Vermeer. Several of these visually stunning pieces became successful sparks for poems. I will discuss the creative activity of written reflection on a work of visual art, known as ekphrastic writing, and share my poem series "Golden" alongside images of the paintings themselves, most of which are part of the private collection of family friends Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo.

Thank you to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo Collection for the use of most of the images in this presentation!

This event, which will take place in the Farnsworth Library, is part of a series of poetry readings that will take place at the Farnsworth throughout the month of April, National Poetry Month. Admission is $10. For more information, here’s the Farnsworth’s event posting.