Tuesday Poem: ‘(From an Awakened Sleep)’ — a videopoem by Charlotte Hamrick

(From an Awakened Sleep)

Today we have a beautiful videopoem by Charlotte Hamrick, presented by Nic Sebastian and featured at The Poetry Storehouse.

Please view the poem here.

I really like the way Charlotte and Nic combine image and word to create something greater than the parts. Here’s a little more about The Poetry Storehouse project and Charlotte’s poem…

Nic Sebastian on The Poetry Storehouse:

The Poetry Storehouse promotes new forms and delivery methods for page poetry by creating a repository of freely-available quality poems for non-commercial remix by multimedia artists, who are often stymied in their work by copyright restrictions.

The Storehouse opened its doors in October 2013 and in its first year has amassed a fabulous collection of poems and audio-visual remixes based on those poems, thanks to a more than 100-strong (and growing) community of poets, remixers and readers.

In the Storehouse vision, creative energy is never created from scratch, nor does it ever die, but continually morphs from form to form as each of us is inspired by what has gone before us and in turn inspires what comes after us. Unique for its three categories of contributors – poets, remixers and readers – who engage with each others’ work with always interesting and frequently stunning results, the Storehouse embodies that continual passing on of the creative baton.

 Video & still image remixes based on Poetry Storehouse poems can be seen on our Vimeo page. View those selected for showcasing at the Moving Poems videopoetry site here.  Remixer guidelines are here and poetry submission guidelines are here.

Charlotte Hamrick on her poem:

I’ve been a regular visitor at The Poetry Storehouse and always thought it would be cool to have one of my poems set to video. When they accepted four of my poems for publication on the site I never thought one would be chosen for remix. I was thrilled when Nic Sebastian created the video for (From an Awakened Sleep) which is a piece that has a special significance for me. I woke up one morning with the first part of the poem in my head (up to “the blackened scale and crust). It literally sprang from my sleep, from my unconscious. The rest was written that afternoon. I don’t know what the origin of these awakening thoughts were and I don’t know what it all means but when I read the poem, it feels as much a part of me as my hands or my heart. People are full of mysteries, we often don’t know our own selves although we like to think we do. I’m OK with not knowing what prompted the first lines of this poem and I believe I balanced the rather stark language with a hopeful ending which, by the way, came as easily as the beginning.

I’m very happy with the imagery Nic selected for the remix. I’ve been thinking about it and maybe the “blackened scale and crust” represents what’s left of us after living through all hard times in our lives and the “stolen moon dust” that’s blown into the air represents rebirth in the form of these children who are just beginning their lives. I think Nic was quite intuitive in her image selections. Sometimes you just “feel” a thing without knowing why and both this poem and this video are like that, for me.

–copyright Charlotte Hamrick. Posted with permission from the author.

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Thank you, Charlotte Hamrick and Nic Sebastian, for sharing with the Tuesday Poem series. 

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More about the poets:

Charlotte Hamrick lives in New Orleans where she doesn’t eat gumbo everyday and doesn’t ever say “chère”. Her work has been published in numerous online and print journals, most recently including Blue Fifth Review, Connotation Press, and The Poetry Storehouse. She was a finalist for the 15th Glass Woman Prize and is a Pushcart nominee. Her original writing can be found on her websites, Zouxzoux and NOLAFemmes.

Nic Sebastian, co-founder and curator of The Poetry Storehouse, is the author of Forever Will End On Thursday and Dark and Like A Web, both published under the poetry nanopress model with partner editors. Nic blogs at Very Like A Whale and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Yew Journal, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Anti-, MiPOesias, Blue Fifth Review, Avatar Review and elsewhere.

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Tuesday Poem is a collective of poets who share poetry on a weekly basis across borders and time zones. At the TP hub this week you’ll find  “Outpost” by Lindsay Pope, posted by TP editor this week, English poet Keith Westwater. 

For more Tuesday Poems, go here.

 

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