Holly by Kristel Saxon
Kristel Saxon, Great Grandfather’s Dog, 2020. 31cm x 41cm, acrylic paint.
Past/Present Pets is a collaborative project with Red Room and Studio A honouring the life force of animals through a body of poetic and visual work that captures the spirit of companionship.
The project commissioned fourteen Studio A artists to create a series of response poems to accompany artworks inspired by pets – past, present, fantastic and future – reflecting their role in our personal, social and sacred worlds.
To support the creation of the poems, six Red Room Poetry poets mentored Studio A artists with workshops earlier in the year and the final poems and artworks published by Red Room Poetry in September 2020. You can read one of the final products by Kristel Saxon below.
Holly by Kristel Saxon
Holly
She was very cheeky and clever
a little naughty as well
She used to go to
our neighbour Ted’s place
It was always dark inside
even in the daytime
Ted sat on the front verandah
simple wooden
He was tall and thin
he blew smoke rings from his pipe
Holly went there to get a sausage
always raw
Like my feelings
when I went back to Bright
Warm and fuzzy
and a little sad too
by Kristel Saxon
Holly by Kristel Saxon is a poem that is published as part of Past/Present Pets – a collaborative project with Red Room and Studio A honouring the life force of animals through a body of poetic and visual work that captures the spirit of companionship.
The project commissions 14 Studio A artists to create a series of response poems to accompany their art based on pets – past, present, fantastic and from the future – reflecting
their role in our personal, social and sacred worlds, now more than ever.
To support the creation of the poems, six Red Room Poetry poets mentored Studio A artists with workshops earlier in the year and the final poems and artworks published by Red Room Poetry in September 2020.