I could never get the hang of perspective

As a child, art was my first love;
I drew, chalked and painted
freehand,
thinking I knew it all.
Then came the lesson on perspective.
I couldn’t see the point
in the distance
where all the lines
joined up.
My landscape of road and houses
was lopsided,
a landslide
tumbling
down
a non-existent mountain.
A camera saved me,
showed me how to capture distance,
pointed at the lines
where they finally joined up –
and I wrote my first poem.

Kim M. Russell, 11th November 2019

Image result for hundertwasser cityscapes
City View by Friedensreich Hundertwasser – image found on Flickr

My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads: Different Perspectives!

Anmol says that the best thing about an online poetry space like the Imaginary Garden is ‘its acknowledgment and promotion of the many different perspectives to a prompt’ – which is why he would like us to write a poem about perspectives — our perspectives, definitions or understanding of the word, playing around with form, metaphors, and imagery of poems by offering fresh perspectives. He has shared a poem entitled ‘Perspective’ by Federico García Lorca for inspiration. 

35 thoughts on “I could never get the hang of perspective”

  10. There should be no rules in art as the mind of the artist is free to create his/her image of life. I hope Kim that you still have examples of your early art as it might tell you something about yourself. I can remember many years ago I drew a picture of a lorry at school and even spelled it LORY as I wasn’t fluent at 5yo
    All the teacher could do was criticize the spelling not comment on the drawing.

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    1. I still love art and dabble from tiem to time. One of the biggest problems with teaching is that they are too focused on the curriculum and not creativity. I know – I was a teacher who encouraged creativity in all lessons. Sadly I don’t have examples of my early art, but still have work from a life drawing class I attended some years ago, as well as a couple of portraits.

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  12. Really enjoyed this ~~~ totally related! Margaret recently introduced us to alcohol ink art, a medium where perspective truly is in the eye of the beholder, I am having so much fun!

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      3. Thank you, Viv. I’ll have to give it all my attention on Saturday,; after getting my flu jab last week, I have a dose of the flu! I feel like my head’s full of cotton wool and I can’t stop sneezing.

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  15. I like how you define perspective in both spatial and metaphorical terms — the lines joining in the distance is such a potent image.
    I loved this description: “a landslide/tumbling/down/a non-existent mountain.”

    P.s. I apologize for such a long delay in reading and responding to your take on the prompt. 🙂

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