Installment two of The Poetic Art Pairing Project features the work of Itoro Udofia, a passionate artist who I met on the NetworkedBlogs space on Facebook.

Itoro’s blog Thoughts of my Mind features her art in a myriad of forms: poetry, which she recites in video clips with the backdrop of gorgeous art which feasts your eyes as her voice treats your ears, songs, excerpts of her longer form writing and artistic images.

So let’s get into it! Itoro sent me the following art piece and coupled with my poetic interpretation, I will deem it: Justified & Vastly Jeweled.

I am an extension of the extension of earth-toned souls

spirited and spicy, justified and vastly jeweled

My diamonds, rubies and gold pieces are not just adornments I wear with flair that beg to be complimented

They rest in the heart of me

Peel back my layers, unwrap my delicate but sturdy coverings of years of unjust decorations

As I walk to the market to buy fresh meat, spices and grains to create nutrition to feed my fruition

They throw their cloaks of confusion upon my shoulders weighing me down with their notions of my nature which they only see as nubile and naughty

When I am safe within my quarters I stomp on those cloaks with feet that have graced the halls of higher learning

I take them and wash them until they sing of perfume and place them in buckets filled with colorful dye

Now, see the beauty coming into view as the pigment soaks in and their false truth dies

My truth is a vision to behold-colors of the ocean, deep reds and golds

Only I can paint my palette and the colors are blindingly beautiful-coaxed from the core of me

Look deeper always and question what you see

Define yourself not by others but by your own correlations

You are not just comprised of an idea, a street corner or a city-but many nations

You as I are made of Earth, Moon, Sun and Sky

Fashioned from God’s great eye

I am nature’s bulb, seed and root

I am land, horse, bird and sea

See me all

When you see me

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