Artistic Interpretations - It's all about Place

English Great Hall of the Late Tudor Period
(1550-1603)

I visited the Art Institute of Chicago this past summer and enjoyed the 69 miniatures of both European and American interiors.  The scales are one inch to one foot which became a standard in the miniature industry.  The miniatures are crafted from the same type of wood used for the original pieces of furniture, and the grain of the wood had to fit the small scale of objects.  I believe if you click on each image, it will enlarge.

I apologize for so few photos - many I took I couldn't use due to darkness and reflections.   HERE is a link to videos and further photos of this exhibition.   HERE is a link to all 69 rooms.  Feel free to use ANY of the images, not just the ones I posted.  (I am not sure about the user "rights" so you might have to link to the images offered on the other website - I'll let you be the judge of that, though).

English Cottage Kitchen (sitting area) of the Queen Anne Period
(1702-14)

I want you to play with and consider poems about "place".  Setting.  Mood.  Focus on descriptive technique - consider whether you feel like being lead to write about what is outside the room or in (or both).  Is it about something that happened within this room or something that is about to happen?  Is it a memory, an emotion?  Pay attention to color, feel, sounds, mood, even taste of a room.   Have fun with this... write fiction, or non-fiction - study the period, the country, the history.  Is it first person, or is it perhaps from a dog's perspective, or maybe a certain armchair or painting? 

I have given a few examples of how you can play with this and please feel free to write in any style, even grab an older poem you have written and add place to it.  The examples here are just ideas in which you may draw inspiration or not.  

I do prefer, however, that all poems for this challenge relate in some way to one of the 69 rooms.  I believe it's a worthwhile exercise to step out of our world and research history a bit BUT, if you are a poet that must write from personal experience or feels no creative juices from these miniature rooms, submit a NEW poem featuring "place".   (I added this last concession at noon Friday...)  

English Drawing Room of the Georgian Period
(1800)

I wrote "This Big Room" - in response to a challenge highlighting an Andrew Wyeth painting as the inspiration.

Below is a poem by poet Richard Blanco.   I was introduced to him through a blog I enjoy "Recollections of a Vagabonde":

El Florida Room (excerpt)

by Richard Blanco

(1st stanza)

Not a study or a den, but El Florida

as my mother called it, a pretty name

for the room with the prettiest view

of the lipstick-red hibiscus puckered up

against the windows, the tepid breeze 

laden with the brown-sugar scent

of loquats drifting in from the yard.

...

(3rd stanza)

Not a sitting room, but El Florida where

I sat alone for hours with butterflies

frozen on the polyester curtains

and faces of Lladro figurines:  sad angels,

clowns, and princesses with eyes glazed

blue and gray, gazing from behind

the glass doors of the wall cabinet.

I highly encourage you to read the entire poem HERE.  

French Dining Room of the Louis XIV Period
(1660-1700)

Below is another place poem which ponders a personal thought while sitting in and describing a little park.

The Secret of Light (excerpt)

by James Wright

I am sitting contented and alone in a little park near the Palazzo Scaligere in Verona, glimpsing the mists of early autumn as they shift and fade among the pines and city battlements on the hills above the river Adige.

The river has recovered from this morning's rainfall.  (for the entire poem, click HERE)

French Provincial Bedroom of the Louis XV Period
(18th Century)

Another poem takes a location and again, ponders feelings:

Attic

by Kathryn Stripling Byer

Not buried

but piece by piece carried

up narrow stairs

into the rafters,

her leavings 

have summered through

forty-five seasons 

of Bible-Belt heat (to read entire poem, click HERE)

French Bathroom & Boudoir of the Revolutionary Period
(1793-1804)

As usual, if you have a busy day or weekend, please consider turning in late or posting on Open Link Monday - but also remember to post here as well.  Visit others and I believe most will repay the visit.  Have fun and please link your specific poem to the Linky below.  I look forward to your artistic interpretations.

New Mexico Dining Room
(1940)