For a while now, I’ve been illustrating poems. Not my own poems, though. I haven’t written one since my English teacher, Mr. Greenspan, gave me and my fellow seventh grade classmates an assignment to create a collection of sonnets, haikus, and limericks during the spring semester of 1977.

Several family members on my father’s side write poetry, but only one, Paul Raboff, is a Poet. Interestingly, there’s not much creativity on my mother’s side of the family. I’ve heard that at some stage in her life, my mother was decent at drawing.

Illustrating poetry is an inspiring challenge. It’s also a process with a fairly steep learning curve. While creating a new piece for my Resurfaced series takes time, by trying to decipher the soul of a poem, I am provided with helpful clues and/or guidance in my choices of color, composition, and cohesiveness. The above work is called, “Return to Normalcy II”