Collaboration a spiritual coming together of artists

Provided

The collaborative work of philosopher/poet Sheridan Hough and minister/weaver Susan Hull Walker is included in a book titled “The Hide.”

I have been interested in collaboration ever since I started working with batik artist Mary Edna Fraser. There is something organic about the connection between her art and my landscape poetry that results in something new. The poems complement the art and vice versa, although each stands alone.

Poets and artists have frequently collaborated, and often there is something that lies at the heart of the material that binds them. This connection is strong and intense. You could say it is spiritual. Those who collaborate often speak about it as if they are describing what it feels like to fall in love. And with good reason: The connection feels that powerful.

This kind of connection is true for philosopher/poet Sheridan Hough and minister/ weaver Susan Hull Walker.

Their collaboration was sparked when Susan first heard Sheridan read poems at a party in November 2004.

According to Sheridan, "Susan wanted to contribute her textiles to my poetry project, since she served as muse to the poetic effort and her weavings were so clearly kin to what I had written."

The result is a beautiful book called "The Hide," featuring Sheridan's poems and photographs of Susan's weavings. In the artist's statement at the beginning of the book, Susan describes how she was drawn to Sheridan's poetry: "The images of my work depicted in this volume are taken from a series of 21 vestments I created, rendered in miniature. Through them, I am reflecting upon the ways that clothing shapes our interior life. How it hides us, so that we can reveal ourselves to ourselves, in a sanctuary of silence."

The book is divided into two parts: The first section is called "Skins" and the second is called "Sanctuaries."

The title poem, "The Hide," appears toward the end of the collection in the "Sanctuaries" section.

In her introductory essay, Susan describes the way humans originally wore hides and furs for warmth, before we had cloth. She suggests that today our clothing gives a sense of our identity and serves as a kind of "second skin."

Sheridan's poem "The Hide," describes a place set apart in the natural world: "A tableau of purpose, this hide/for humans: a windowed world, a place/of record."

It is a place people are drawn to for its natural beauty, which is transformed into a place of sanctuary.

The Hide

(for Alison)

In Cambridge, England, there is a bird sanctuary that only members may enter. The lock is opened with a large brass key.

Kingfishers rise like blue destiny,

sometimes they do not come at all.

Our box on stilts has two chairs,

and unlike my childhood fort it sits

in this bird preserve, a tiny geometry

of lake and scrub, bee and fox, duck

and deer. A tableau of purpose, this hide

for humans: a windowed world, a place

of record. Every watcher writes a name,

so many weddings attended: the mating ducks

have ended up with ceremony and censer, wear

fancy dress for their guests. I scoot my chair

next to yours to read the names. Yours is best.

Three syllables open my mouth and close it,

a noise one's tongue returns to gratefully:

the flick of articulation a cleansing joy,

embracing its perfection,

its edges, its winged enclosure.

Marjory Wentworth is South Carolina's poet laureate.