Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art - Poetry, Drama, Film and Response

1.  Greenberg, Jan (ed.).  Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art.  New York:  Henry N. Abrams, 2001.

2.  Overview.  Heart to Heart is a book of poems and art.  The poems were written by well-know poets, many of whom write for "young readers" and were inspired by famous works of American art, from paintings to sculpture to photographs.  Printed in pairs with the work of art on one page and the poem on the facing page, both poetry and art come alive in this volume.

3.  Critical Analysis.  Poetry is seeing a revival among young people.  Given the efforts of such poets as Robert Pinsky and Billy Collins, both U.S. Poet Laureates who began projects to bring poetry into schools, more and more young people are being exposed to quality poetry that is modern and engaging in addition to the classics that have traditionally dominated the English classroom.  This book continues the move by bringing quality art and poetry together into one place.  Called "ekphrasis" which is writing that is based on a work of art, these poems began with the art which inspired the words.  The poems cover a wide range of tones including humorous, reflective, sad, and playful.  While some poems are more challenging than others,  I would venture to say that most middle and high school students would find poems they would admit they like.  The art helps to support the meaning found in the words, so readers who believe they do not like poetry may find that the art helps them to construct meaning from the words more easily.

Older students who learned to love the verses of Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein in elementary school should be able to move to these more advanced poems with ease (assuming a misdirected English teacher doesn't use them for traditional analysis and explication, killing the joy of reading them before it has even had a chance to begin).  Perhaps because I'm an art museum junkie along with being a relatively recent convert to poetry, I label this volume as one of the best poetry books in my collection.  It will introduce students to both great artists - both visual and verbal. 

School Library Journal agrees.  "Each work of art is impeccably reproduced, the color and design are exceptional, and each poem is given room on the page to breathe. The art glows, the words reflect the images and create more light....If a picture book is defined as a marriage of word and art, then Heart to Heart is not only a wonderful poetry collection, but also a picture book of the highest quality."  The poems are grouped into four categories that are thoroughly explained in a well-written introduction by Greenberg:

• STORIES - poems that recall a memory or relate an anecdote
• VOICES - poems that assume the voice of the object or person depicted in the art
• IMPRESSIONS - poems that examine the elements of the artwork and present word pictures of what is contained there
• EXPRESSIONS - poems that explore aspects of the art and the artist

Other helpful features of this book include "Biographical Notes on Poets" and "Biographical Notes on Artists."  Each piece of art is captioned with the title of the work, the year and the medium.  Photographic credit for each art piece and poetry credits for each poem are printed at the end.

4.  Additional Resources

I created a book trailer for this book to be used during Teen Read Week.  This link should get you to the YouTube video.

Heart to Heart  Book Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twzZ4_llRJQ

readwritethink - a site created by the joint efforts of the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English have a lesson plan for high school students on ekphrasis that includes Heart to Heart.

readwritethink lesson plan
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/ekphrasis-using-inspire-poetry-1093.html?tab=1#tabs