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Education
» Resources › About | Face Poets playfully answer questions about their faces based on portraits taken by Maud Sulter, and recommend some poem-portraits to read. Stewart Conn | Valerie Gillies | Edwin Morgan | Maud Sulter
What feature of your own face do you most like?The eyes, if anything – it used to be the dark, curly hair, until that disappeared! What feature of your own face do you most dislike?The proboscis, allied to a general blobbiness. Is there a family characteristic in your face/body?The nose, on my father's side. Brown eyes, on my mother's. If you were writing a poem about a face, how would you begin?Study its expression and especially the eyes and mouth (think of the mystery of the 'Mona Lisa') – with a view to having some entrée into its thoughts and feelings, or as a means of attributing these, imaginatively, to its owner… then setting these in the context, say, of the passage of time. Name three poem-portraits you'd recommend reading.'My Last Duchess' by Robert Browning
What feature of your own face do you most like?My lively eyes. What feature of your own face do you most dislike?My tiny mouse mouth. Is there a family characteristic in your face/body?Yes, in my profile which you can't see here. Also in my hands: they look as if they have made many things. If you were writing a poem about a face, how would you begin?By looking for its light side and its dark side, the difference between its right eye and its left eye – do they see different worlds? Name three poem-portraits you'd recommend reading.'Felix Randal' by Gerard Manley Hopkins
What feature of your face do you most like?I don't remember the portrait well enough to answer this, but in any case I don't think there was any feature I particularly liked or disliked; it was a good clear detailed portrait which seemed to me to do its job. Is there a family characteristic in your face/body?No, I don't think so. If you were writing a poem about a face, how would you begin?I saw a face in space… Name three poem-portraits you'd recommend reading.'My Last Duchess' by Robert Browning
What feature of your own face do you most like?My mouth. What feature of your own face do you most dislike?My eyes, they are giving too much away. Is there a family characteristic in your face/body?My mother's roman nose. If you were writing a poem about a face, how would you begin?I would find a point of engagement such as the gaze, the line of the neck, or the smile and take it from there. Name three poem-portraits you'd recommend reading.'Le Chat / The Cat' by Charles Baudelaire in Baudelaire
in English, translated by Carol Clark (Penguin, 1997) |
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Stewart
Conn was born in Glasgow and lives in Edinburgh. In 2002 he began a three-year
term as he first 'Edinburgh Makar'. He worked in broadcasting for many
years, while also writing plays and poetry. His most recent collections
are Stolen Light: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe,
1999) and Distances (Scottish Cultural Press, 2001). 
Valerie
Gillies was born in Canada, studied in India, and lives in Edinburgh.
She teaches creative writing in schools, colleges and hospitals. Her
six poetry collections include Men And Beasts with
photographer Rebecca Marr (Luath, 2000) and The Lightning Tree (Polygon,
2002). 
Edwin Morgan was born in Glasgow and continued to
live there for the rest of his life. He retired as titular professor
from the University of Glasgow in 1980, and was appointed Glasgow's Poet
Laureate in 1999. He was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in
2000, and among his many collections of poems, translations, and essays
are New
Selected Poems (Carcanet,
2000), Cathures (Carcanet/Mariscat Press, 2002) and Love
And A Life (Mariscat Press, 2003).
Maud Sulter was born in Glasgow of Scots and Ghanaian descent. A visual
artist, writer and cultural historian, she explored the continuing
presence of Africa in Europe through an exhibition about Jeanne Duval
at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Her publications include the
poetry collection Zabat
Narratives (UFP/Rochdale
Art Gallery, 1989) and the play Service To Empire (A19, 2002). 