Helen Pletts has been working collaboratively with Romit Berger since 2012 and that these wonderful Word & Image pieces have been published exclusively by IS&T makes it fitting that, having been shortlisted before, they are voted as Pick of the Month the second time round – for the exquisite ‘The plane tree entertains the circus of doves’.
Voters used the words ‘beautiful’ and ‘evocative’ again and again. They praised the connection between the text and the visual, the ‘striking language and strong imagery’.
Helen and Romit have asked that their £10 ‘prize’ be donated to The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.
Helen (www.helenpletts.com ) has two collections, Bottle bank and For the chiding dove, published by YWO/Legend Press (supported by The Arts Council) and available on Amazon. Bottle bank was longlisted for The Bridport Poetry Prize 2006 (under Helen’s maiden name, Bannister). She is also published in Aesthetica, Orbis and The Fenland Reed. Helen’s poetry was longlisted for The Rialto Nature and Place Competition 2018 and shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize in 2018.
Romit: “I am a graphic designer. I met my very dear friend, Helen Pletts, in Prague, several years ago. Helen’s inspiration has led my graphic design career into that magical realm which combines illustration and poetry, and our creative wings continue to connect our souls through time and distance.”
The plane tree entertains the circus of doves
Stripped of spindly epicormic shoots, the now-knuckle-tree jabs her skeletal arms over the snapped stale breaths of pale, orange shavings powdering the tree surgeon’s yellow truck. Her psoriatic plane-bones arthrite in the grey sky. Knotted; hunched naked like the great distorted central pole of a marquee. Feather me, she says. Don’t leave me open-necked up-holding this soft circus. Perched in the flaking gnarl the little skull-caps are grey with it too. They dot her fleshlessness with incredulous brows. Tremble at the amplified sirens of daysound. Blink bright as part of the canopy of constellations later on in the dark.
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Voters’ comments included:
The text is so atmospheric and full of subtle feelings… and the artwork is evocative and beautiful.
The symmetry between the words and the sketch is perfect
ORIGINALITY ! There is a delight in pure diction here, a tenderness of imagery, and a subtly moving visual response to the prose poem by Romit Berger.
It’s the combination of the words and the image: each feeds the other, and you have to look back and forth between the two to savour the whole.
Great visual description
I love the imagery it evokes, the drawing that goes along with it. It feels very raw and present
The vivid description and sorrow of the tree
It makes me think of all the trees that are cut often/ cut back so much these days to make room for more houses/offices.
I find the visualisation particularly moving. Giving soul to our living world.
It’s amazing!
Great combination of fine writing and graphic.
The imagery was vivid yet vague, gave a chilling warmth and familiarity. beautiful and eerie.
Beautiful collaboration with poetry full of fantastic imagery