Verses at an Exhibition
Posted on by Anita O'Donovan

During a visit by staff, guides and volunteers from the National Coal Mining Museum for England to the National Civil War Museum in Newark, an interesting detail came to light. It seems the explanatory captions accompanying exhibits are often written at length, up to 1,500 words, initially. There is then an editing process ultimately reducing them to a maximum of fifty words. As a poet I am interested in the process of saying much in as few words required. So I set myself the task of writing 5 vignettes, short poems of around 50 words, reflecting my experience of the day. Read more