Spontaneous Collaboration

HOME (by Ramona Davis)

I'd like to live in the kind of house
with plenty of windows
so my muse can see the beauty
of the trees
and the creek across the way.

I'd like to live in the kind of house
where the floor creaked slightly
as old ghosts came out to play
and sip coffee
they'd like my cappuccino best

I'd like to live in the kind of house
whose haunts come from the past
and not from me
where freedom dwells and my life is my own

I'd like to live in the kind of house
that I could call a home.

Published March 27, 2008, by PoeticJava

At the Artella website we have bi-weekly contests that are meant to inspire both artists and writers. The latest contest was called Spontaneous Collaboration. The challenge was to find a piece of art, either written or visual, from the gallery or blogs at Artella and to issue a response to it, either in writing or visually.

I love the poems of Ramona Davis. Her blog is called PoeticJava and she usually posts a poem a day. Not only is she very prolific, she's an awesome poet. The link to her blog is http://artellacafe.com/blogs/poetic_java/ .

I had already altered the above photo in another post, but after reading her poem I was inspired to alter it again, using the ghosts that she mentions in her poem. I especially liked the line as old ghosts came out to play. This brought to mind children and dolls and frivolity. I thought I would add vintage dolls to all of the windows and the little fairy girl balanced on the gate; all of these images would be a memory of times past that took place in this house. Again, I just love this house! As soon as I saw this photo in the Artella Daily Muse it grabbed my attention and has been haunting me ever since. I imagine I will find more uses for it in the future.

This challenge has brought forth a lot of very good responses. Someone even chose one of my pieces of art to write a poem to! I was very flattered when I saw her poem. Her blog is called Ophelia Blooming and the link to the collaboration of her poem and my art is http://artellacafe.com/blogs/ophelia_blooming/archive/2008/04/16/faeries-blog-topic-of-the-week.aspx .

I hope we do more of these collaborations; they are fun and inspirational!