Jane Yolen came in town the other day to participate in a reading of poems about Dazzle Ships. I mentioned Dazzle Ships in another blog post...
Ships were painted like this during WWI (maybe also during WWII) to throw off locators trying to figure out which direction or how fast ships were going. This one was recently commissioned by artist Ciara Phillips for the
Edinburgh Arts Festival, as was the poetry reading about Dazzle Ships hosted by Marjorie Lotfi Gill of
Open Book at
the Edinburgh Bookshop.
Two wonderful things together, Jane and the Edinburgh Bookshop, we were so there! (And Jane got us guest tickets - yay!) Here was the program, a limited edition risograph printing by
Out of the Blueprint:
The poems took on several different angles and moods. I especially liked the one about the women who painted the ships (yes, they were all women), who were able to get out of the house and wear
trousers for the first time! Jane's poem was also wonderful, of course.
Factoid: Did you know that she shares a poem every day via email? You can sign up HERE. What a fun evening!
