Nadine Boughton reads at the Gloucester Writers Center on Nov. 6.
When the poet and the visual artist share one body, rivalries ensue.
“This jealous little sister of the visual,” Nadine Boughton says of her poetry. Next Wednesday evening, the little sister gets the spotlight, when Boughton reads poems written over the course of three decades at the Gloucester Writers Center.
Boughton’s visual work, as a collagist—her humorous, penetrating creations have been the subject of three solo shows at Gloucester’s Matthew Swift Gallery in the past decade—is unforgettable, for anyone who has seen it. An amalgam of cosmic backgrounds, throwback magazine images and slightly cocked Americana, Boughton’s collages easily bring both a smile, and the unease that comes from her trenchant, stylized satire.
Boughton began creating collages only after decades of work as a photographer. Prior to the exhibitions at Matthew Swift Gallery, she’s shown photographs in multiple galleries in the Boston area, further afield nationally, and internationally. She also maintains a private practice as a creativity consultant.
Nadine Boughton, Then and Now. 2019. Hand-cut collage of vintage materials. 16 x 20 inches. Courtesy the artist and Matthew Swift Gallery.
And all the while, writing poetry filled out Boughton’s artistic family. For this GWC reading, Boughton selects older writing—“poems that are tried and true, from 30 years ago or so,” she says—and a new batch of poems.
“I’ve read the older ones many times before,” she says. “Coffee shops, churches—basically anyplace that we could around Boston,” she says. “They are signature pieces for me.”
The newer work is just that—written this summer, after the latest gallery exhibition, A Fractured Atlas, closed in early August.
“We had just finished this huge show,” she says, “and we went to Maine. I always write there. These are works in progress, and they’re different. They’re slightly more reflective. The form is changing—I’m working more minimalist, monosyllabic. Sensuality is a big thing as well.
“They’re like a photograph—the whole thing is an image, breathing with sensuality. The image carries the meaning—if you can call it meaning.
“Some of the work is political—climate crisis, the vanishing species. Another poem, the most difficult, deals with the Sandy Hook massacre. Some are dark—there is an amazing amount of light and dark.”
Boughton has studied the poetic voice, and oral tradition, with poet David Whyte, and has also incorporated those studies into her creative practice. She will speak about that tradition during her reading, interspersing ideas with poems.
“My passion is really the oral, saying aloud the words,” Boughton says. “I have a lot of poems that are directly about the voice. That’s the most alive for me—the idea of the body as the voice.
“We have this sound machine,” she says. “You can write in all different voices. And it’s also about breath, and rhythm. When the lines break. And then the silence too.
“There’s something that happens in that silence,” she says. “In between. The listener is downloading, and without enough space it doesn’t work. You’re saying the poem and you allow space for it to reach, the space where the imagination is fired.”
Nadine Boughton reads with poet Scott Withiam on Wednesday, Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Gloucester Writers Center, 126 East Main St. Admission is free. Visit gloucesterwriters.org.