We asked our friend Myrna Keliher at Expedition Press for some lines of poetry that have been a source of inspiration to her. Expedition Press is a letterpress printshop focused on poetry and type on the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington. Their mission is to “deepen regard for language and increase access to poetry.”
For those of you who have been following along, we hope you’ve enjoyed meandering through these brief and beautiful works over the past few months and that you’ll be able to bring more poetry into your sketching in the future. If you are stumbling across this for the first time, we invite you to browse the prompts below and find inspiration in them today.
What do you find marvelous, and who would you most like to talk marvels with?
Week One: Speaking of Marvels by Lisel Mueller
What do you visualize when you think of yourself in action?
Week Two: I Am Not Done Yet by Lucille Clifton
What does loving harder look like to you?
Week Three: Love Harder by Ada Limón
What do you carry inside you that needs safe keeping?
Week Four: Bird & Stone by Victoria Chang
If you were a monolith, what would you look like?
Week Five: Monolith of Try by TC Tolbert
What has the weather taught you?
Week Six: Clouds by Mary Ruefle
What does love mean to you?
Week Seven: Wake Into Love by Saretta Morgan
What constraints inform your art?
Week Eight: Admit Constraints by Anthony Froshaug
What allows for release?
Week Nine: Released to River by Brendan Basham
What is the “everything” that the goat of your heart eats?
Week Ten: Goat of My Heart by Anis Mojgan
All ten of these beautiful prints are available through Expedition Press.
About Myrna
Myrna Keliher is an artist, typographer, editor, and printer. She grew up in a small northwest town in a big family devoid of artists, and though she felt like she was supposed to be a scientist, she instead found her way to art.
Myrna says, “Letterpress proved to be my way in as I was always comfortable with words and mechanically inclined. I’m largely self-taught, though indebted to my many mentors. I started my own studio in 2012 and have been wending my way toward where I’m at ever since.”
Myrna has written morning pages every day for ten years. She says it’s the primary way she gets through each day and the tool that makes her ideas real year in and year out. She reads very slowly, and when a line or two gets stuck in her head, she reaches out to authors and publishers directly. Myrna aches over minor details. She prioritizes poetry and people and people who write poetry, publish poetry, and read poetry. She wants everyone to read poetry. Poetry helps her live.