Evan Johnson created this imaginative photographic illustration of the Poetry House at the Paradise Wood Sculpture Garden. SSU professor Elizabeth Carothers Herron and sculptor Bruce Johnson are at right.

A Poem That Led to a "Poetry House"

Inspired by a poem penned by SSU Professor Elizabeth Carothers Herron, local sculptor Bruce Johnson has created “Poetry House,” an architectural sculpture in the form of a traditional Japanese teahouse, now on display at the Paradise Wood Sculpture Garden. Herron will be reading selections from her epic “Poet's House” at the Quicksilver Mine Gallery in Forestville on Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m.

Johnson, an artist and sculptor with more than 35 years of experience, was moved to begin work on “Poetry House” after reading a short poem that Herron had composed in the guestbook of the Sonoma Mountain Zen Center. Herron, a professor of Arts and Humanities at SSU, has expanded her original poem from the Zen Center guestbook into a handwritten epic in the tradition of ancient Greek plays. The poem will eventually be published in a four-volume set entitled “Poet's House.” As the poem unfolds, it reveals a message that everything in life is connected to nature in a melodic rhythm.”

Johnson has been transcribing lines from Herron's poem on to the under layers of roof and body of the copper and redwood structure to imbue this small sacred space with poetry. "Like prayers in a prayer wheel the invisible text has resonance," he says.

For more on Herron and Johnson's work on the Poetry House, visit http://www.formandenergy.com/inthestudio.html .