If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m enamoured of Castlemaine. Its graceful old buildings, wide streets and lovely gardens hold such a strong appeal, that I’ll trundle up there on the pretext of not very much at all.  

For the next week, though, I have an excellent reason to drive the 35 or so kilometres to reach ‘the Maine’ and it’s this: The Castlemaine State Festival. The program is packed with wonderfully diverting events, promising all manner of cultural stimulation for us country bumpkins.

Sometimes I could kick myself for not being organised enough to diarise events that I’d really like to see. On Saturday afternoon, for instance, I was so involved in the garden that I missed two of my favourite poets – Alicia Sometimes and Terry Jaensch – in a festival event called Poetry Gold at the Castlemaine Art Gallery.

Determined not to miss anything else, yesterday afternoon we managed to get ourselves together to take in another poetry reading at the art gallery, with the intriguing title of Artlines. I’d heard a few of the poems of two of the participating poets and wanted to hear more of them. This was my big chance. 

Before the event, we were told that the participating poets had indulged in a spot of ekphrasis. ’They’d done what?’ I hear you ask. Don’t panic, it’s nothing nasty. Allow me to explain. 

Four poets read their work: Ross Donlon, Ross Gillett, E.A. Gleeson and Sheryl Persson. Of the four, Sheryl Persson, from Sydney, is a member of DiVerse, a group of poets who practice ekphrasis. In terms of poetry, ekphrasis is a poet’s response to a work of art; however it goes beyond mere description.

Ekphrasis is a Greek word which means ‘speaking forth’ and according to my souvenir booklet of poems, ‘it has been described as art criticism that aims at the subconscious.’ 

From the gallery’s collection, each poet chose four or five works of art that moved them in some way. Their responses then became the subjects of their poems.

Some poems were sad, some funny, some elegantly simple, others rollicking. The large crowd wandered from room to room, following the poets who’d made their selections from a total of 18 works by artists such as John Brack, Tom Roberts, Rupert Bunny, Clifton Pugh, Clarice Beckett, Sir Arthur Streeton, Fred McCubbin and Ethel Phillips Fox.

Without consultation, each poet had chosen different works upon which to base their poems. Their insights, at times very moving, were always enlightening.

Having heard the work of two more of my favourite poets, and two more new ones, I was mighty pleased that we’d made the effort but it came with a heavy price: after a taste of all that the festival has to offer, I want more.