How to Draw Inspiration from Different Forms of Art When Writing Poems

Are you seeking inspiration for the poems your write? We explore how other genres of art might help you flourish as a writer. Art is for everyone, not just those who signed their names on the bottom of renowned paintings we admire today in the Louvre Museum. It’s not just about putting paint on canvas, either. Art comes in various forms and can be defined as a creative endeavour in which we express a thought, emotion, concept, or idea. It utilises imagination and technical skill to produce something that reflects an aspect of our existence or the human condition. While poetry is considered an art form, poets can also draw on other art forms for inspiration when writing a piece. Creativity is like a candle’s flame that never gets dimmer when spread to other candles. This is how poems and art such as visual design, music, and even cinema ignite and inform any art form of choice.

Poems Guided by the Beauty and Ferocity of Nature

Is nature art? Many people certainly find aspects of art within nature, such as symmetry, form, lines and shapes, light contrasts, and more. We also derive sensory stimulation when immersed in nature, with colours, sounds, textures, and profound scenes such as a tranquil lake, the flight of a butterfly, or a full moon. While nature itself might not be emergent from our creativity, it is certainly a place where we can derive powerful prompts when writing poems. Ecopoetry, for example, serves a few purposes. Firstly, it aims to emphasise the importance of the natural world around us. Secondly, ecopoetry inspires change. Because people are responsible for much destruction on the planet, ecopoetry brings awareness to the current issues that humans are creating and facing, with the goal of protecting nature. Throughout the history of poetry, however, countless poems have been inspired by animals, plants, and natural phenomena.

See the World Through a Camera’s Lens

Looking at a photograph means peeking back in time, to a single moment captured as it happened. While photography does entail the perception of the viewer and the somewhat limited lens of the photographer, it is less open to interpretation than other art forms. Photography has been used to showcase powerful, haunting, shocking, and inspirational moments all throughout history, giving us a glimpse into where we come from as humans and perhaps giving us a new perspective on our future. With this new outlook on life, we can write poems from a frame of reference that extends beyond our own reality and includes the eye of the photographer.

Learn to Evoke Deep Emotions the Way Paintings Do

Paintings don’t have a voice – they rely on the artist’s hand to give meaning to a concept. We can imbue a painting with a voice when we analyse it and examine what it might be about. Poems, on the other hand, are all about having one’s voice heard. In this way, poems and paintings complement each other well, with countless poets writing pieces in reference to famous paintings. Anne Sexton’s “The Starry Night” is an ekphrastic poem that describes the scene outlined in Vincent van Gogh’s famed painting of the same name. Though the painting itself is an image, Sexton uses imagery and symbolism in her poem when describing the painting.

The Art of Cinema and How it Informs Our Worldview

Whether we recognise it or not, cinema has long informed how we view the world around us. Since the art of flickering, moving images first became popular, poets have been exploring the impacts of film. In Christopher Nolan’s 2014 hit movie about space travel, Interstellar, we see poetry brought to the big screen. In a touching scene, the space explorers on a dangerous mission listen to a recited poem by Dylan Thomas called “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”. As the scene and music both reach their emotional climax, the last words of the poem are enforced, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Whether you find inspiration in music and dance, beautiful artworks, or even other poems such as those within our library , you are free to explore and write to your heart’s content. To learn more about The AVBOB Poetry project, don’t hesitate to contact us today.