Coalesce 2025

Posted on 2025-01-06 by Bartholomew Barker

For the month of January, two of my poems appear on the walls of the Eno Arts Mill as part of the Coalesce 2025 exhibit. Above is a picture of me with my visual artist, Ellie Snow, and our collaborations. She shared a painting for me to write a poem to and I shared a poem for her to paint to and we were just one of ten pairings in the show so the gallery has forty works of art: paintings, pottery, sculpture and, of course, plenty of poetry.

Ellie asked me to write a poem to her painting, Chestnuts for Justice, Aloe for Grief. I only had a few weeks to work but that was more than enough time since her art was so inspiring.

I asked Ellie to paint something to my old poem, The River Flows Through Us All, which first appeared here as part of the April 2020 Poem-A-Day challenge and which I later revised and got published at North of Oxford.

If you’re driving distance from Hillsborough, North Carolina, I strongly encourage you to visit the gallery so you can experience the power of collaboration.

Unknown's avatar

About Bartholomew Barker

Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
This entry was posted in Poetry and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

37 Responses to Coalesce 2025

  1. DD's avatar DD says:
    2025-01-06 at 19:56

    Nice work.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. Nicole Smith's avatar Nicole Smith says:
    2025-01-06 at 20:14

    What a lovely show, beautiful artwork. Congratulations.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. jsimpsonpoet's avatar jsimpsonpoet says:
    2025-01-06 at 20:30

    Fantastic Bartholomew

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. Melissa Lemay's avatar Melissa Lemay says:
    2025-01-06 at 20:36

    Beautiful!!🤩

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. johnlmalone's avatar johnlmalone says:
    2025-01-06 at 20:48

    wonderful, Bart; it is such an honor to have one’s poems displayed on the walls of a gallery alongside its visual counterpart.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  6. Michele Lee's avatar Michele Lee says:
    2025-01-06 at 20:55

    Fantastic! Congratulations to you and the visual artist, Bart! Beautiful collaborative results. 👏🏻

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. Britta Benson's avatar brittabenson says:
    2025-01-07 at 03:25

    Congratulations!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  8. Ephemeral Encounters's avatar Ephemeral Encounters says:
    2025-01-07 at 04:37

    Wow Congratulations!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  9. JeanMarie's avatar JeanMarie says:
    2025-01-07 at 04:55

    Well done, . Congratulations! 😍

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  10. Loveswing's avatar Loveswing says:
    2025-01-07 at 05:14

    Beautiful work, the power of collaboration is so important. 💜

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  11. magickmermaid's avatar magickmermaid says:
    2025-01-07 at 10:55

    Wonderful collaboration of poetry and art! Well done!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  12. johnlmalone's avatar johnlmalone says:
    2025-01-07 at 21:22

    Hi Bart, I;m going to suggest to our writers group when we meet in Feb that we try something like this

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  13. Susi Bocks's avatar Susi Bocks says:
    2025-01-15 at 17:19

    Congrats, Bart!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  14. LuAnne Holder's avatar LuAnne Holder says:
    2025-01-17 at 13:24

    What a beautiful collaboration! The poems and paintings are lovely.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  15. LuAnne Holder's avatar LuAnne Holder says:
    2025-01-17 at 13:26

    What a lovely collaboration. Both the paintings and the poems were beautiful.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  16. Sunra Rainz's avatar Sunra Rainz says:
    2025-01-19 at 09:02

    Beautiful collaboration 🌟

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a reply to brittabenson Cancel reply