“Mother’s Silver Teapot”

Posted on July 1, 2020 • Words by Matthew Thorburn • Art by Meghan Keane

Collaborators’ Q&A: Artist Meghan Keane: I see my friends in this poem; war and forced displacement are their reality and returning home might not be safe in their lifetimes (may that not be the case; and, it is currently uncertain). This poem’s description of a truth that millions of people continue to endure resonated as urgently important. Poet Matthew Thorburn: Meghan’s refraction helps me to see the mother—a character who’s at the center of the book-length sequence that includes this poem, but whom I had never really been able to picture before.

Poet Matthew Thorburn’s latest book is The Grace of Distance (LSU Press, 2019), and he’s the author of six previous collections of poems. He lives with his wife and son in New Jersey. Artist Meghan Keane is a painter and printmaker. She is the founding director of meghan.keane.studio. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Tagged: Diaspora, Digital Art, Family, War

“The Other Side”

Posted on February 1, 2017 • Words by Matthew Thorburn • Art by Kate Baird

Collaborators’ Q&A: What surprised you about this collaborative piece? Poet Matthew Thorburn: I’m happily surprised that my little poem inspired another artist to create something beautiful and engaging. I think as writers we always imagine (or hope for) readers who will be drawn into our work and feel some kind of response to it—that’s what I hope for, at least. To see that response expressed in another creative work is an amazing and humbling experience. Artist Kate Baird: I think I registered the title for the first time when looking at the broadside. I had surely read it before, but I guess I’d sort of mentally skipped over it. I think I got lost in the time element of the poem, and seeing the title brought me back to the space element of it.

Poet Matthew Thorburn lives in New York City. He is the author of six collections of poetry, including Dear Almost (LSU, 2016) and the chapbook A Green River in Spring (Autumn House, 2015), which includes this poem. Artist Kate Baird is the museum educator at the Springfield Art Museum.

Tagged: Black & White, Drawing, Ekphrastic Poetry, Mourning