Image from Word and Colour website

My brand new poem “Tinaja“–inspired by the artwork of Sonia Alins Miguel–is now published in the fantastic online journal, Word and Colour. My thanks to editor Leah Mol for the opportunity to participate.

I’ve admired the journal for a long time because I love its mandate “to confront oppression or provide positive alternatives to stereotypes” and the way in which it features both literary and visual art. The journal curates pieces of visual art, which are selected and then sent to writers who respond to the visual art. The words–which may be prose or poetry–paired with the colours result in some startling, gorgeous, dark or light collaborations. I feel incredibly grateful to be a participant.

I was sent a beautiful painting/paper cut piece by the wonderful Spanish illustrator Sonia Alins Miguel from her Water Women series. “Tinaja” is the poem that I wrote in response. The painting is so rich, and world news is so overwhelmingly hard right now, that I felt pulled in many different directions when I sat down to write. In the end, I’m happy to be able to offer something that offers a bit of hope–to try, as the journal’s mandate suggests, “to alter the way we are socialized and celebrate the beauty of the world that is often missing.” There really is a lot of beauty in our flawed world.

Please go to the Word and Colour website to enjoy the entire archive of visual and literary art. To see Sonia Alins Miguel’s painting and to read my poem, please start here: “Tinaja” by Ruth Daniell.