Friday, March 11, 2011

Peter Pereira's Poem on Verse Daily (From Crab Creek Review, 2010 Vol.2)

Peter Pereira's poem, "Magnolia Blossom," from Crab Creek Review 2010 Vol.2 is featured on Verse Daily today: http://www.versedaily.org/2011/magnoliablossom.shtml "Magnolia Blossom" is part of 2010 Vol.2's special Ekphrastic Section, guest edited by Susan Rich, who put out a call for poems inspired by other art forms. Peter's poem is inspired by Imogen Cunningham's 1925 photograph, Magnolia Blossom.

About his poem, Peter writes, “Magnolia Blossom” was written for the Seattle Art Museum’s monthly reading series SAM-Word, for which I was asked to respond to an exhibit of Imogen Cunningham’s photography. She was part of a group of photographers called Group f/64. The term f/64 refers to the smallest aperture setting on a large format camera. It allows for maximum depth of field, rendering a photograph evenly sharp from foreground to background. These photographs possess an amazing purity of image, and clarity of detail. In an interview Imogen Cunningham gave before her death, referring to her work she said, “In order to make a good photograph you have to be enthusiastic, that is you have to think about it, like a poet would . . .” I hope Imogen would like what this poet thought about, responding to her images.

Peter Pereira’s most recent books are What’s Written on the Body (Copper Canyon 2007) and Saying the World (Copper Canyon 2003).  Recent poems have appeared in New England Review, Prairie Schooner, and the anthology Looking Together: Writers on Art. Peter is also on the Advisory Board of Crab Creek Review.

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