National Poetry Day

 National poetry day- Motherhood as refuge 

07/10/2023

After reading all of the selected poems, this was the one that spoke to me the most, and I feel it has good potential for illustration.

Motherhood as Refuge

by Kim Moore

In the next life, if you’re a mouse,
I’ll be tall grass so you can run unnoticed,
or if you’re a brown rat, I’ll be a garden shed
that you can burrow under, if you’re a seabird
I’ll be an island you can nest on, if you’re a fish
I’ll come out in colours as a coral reef,
if you’re a spider, I’ll be a brick wall
with a creephole for you to hide in,
or if in another life, you find yourself
to be a bat, I’ll be the dark you need to hunt in,
I’ll be the barn you need to roost in,
or maybe you’ll find that you’ve come back
as a rarity, a Walney geranium that grows
only in one place, in all the world –
then wait for me, I’ll be that place, I’ll turn myself
into Walney Island, a strip and spit of land
grey seals can haul themselves upon,
and if you become a buff-tailed bumble bee,
I’ll be the compost heap you sleep in,
and even if you come back as something darker,
something harder – a tumour perhaps,
maybe you need a body to live inside,
I will give you mine, here is my bowel,
it will keep you safe from harm, I’ll put myself
to the bottom of every waiting list, turn down
the operation, this was the bargain,
the promise I made, my life as refuge,
my life as harbour, my life for yours each time. 

09/10/2023

10/10/2023

There was always two angles for this in my head, the wholesome devotion of a mother and the darker idea that a woman ceases to be her own person after she becomes a mother. I like this idea that she is almost spare parts, if her child needs to take from her to survive then she will surrender without protest. That's what I am trying to get across here, the idea of this consensual sacrificial relationship.

I decided to play around with this flat colour style that is extremely popular at the moment, I think it's really effective. My only concern is that the message is not clear enough. I was going to put the text inside the holes in her body, but this would have taken too much attention away from the poem itself, which needs to remain the focal point. So I have decided it works better side by side.

Really pleased with this outcome to be honest because I had to learn some new techniques to do it, for example applying the texture.