sonnets – visual poems

These works are a visual form of poetry, using the form of a sonnet, (lit. ’little song’). An Italian sonnet has 14 lines and the 8th line is a volta or shift, so I have followed this tradition as part of my processes in making these works.

In attending a 2023 Writers Festival poetry workshop, with Anthony Joseph, I was inspired by a David Miller handout of a visual sonnet in black, grey and white.

These works are inspired by both people and place, leading me to create visual sonnets about my grandchildren and family. They are not literal, rather the marks make up the rhythm of the poem/songs in a language of gestural abstraction.

The larger works are inspired by places special to me, both here and in Australia, scenes from the eye of the plane, of place, atmospheric sunrises and sunsets ie: scenes of place, plus events such as the recent sighting of the Aurora Borealis.

I hung the sonnets around my studio walls and they sung to me.

Judi Bagust