Teens with an interest in either poetry or the visual arts will find much to contemplate in this singular collection of paired poems and artworks. Jan Greenberg, author of a number of fine books about art for young adults with Sandra Jordan, invited contemporary writers to choose a painting, a photograph, or another work of 20th-century American art and write a poem inspired or “stimulated” by it. The result is a series of intriguing pairings that offers young-adult readers a glimpse of the genesis and creative processes behind the original poems in this volume. It also affirms that the inspiration for poems can be found everywhere, and that what a poem or painting means does not begin with some secret and sophisticated knowledge but rather draws its strength from the mind of each individual who takes time to consider the work. As one of the poets, X. J. Kennedy, says in Greenberg’s introduction, “Perhaps you can imagine a different story inspired by this painting. Look at the picture long and I think that you too will find it overflowing with possibilities.” (Age 12 and older)

Awarded the Michael L. Printz Honor Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art offers an original way to approach poetry and art--with works by distinguished American poets, specially commissioned for this book by editor Jan Greenberg.

What do we feel when we look at a great work of art? What does a poet feel?

Prompted by paintings, sculpture, prints, and photographs by American artists working in the 20th century, the poems in this collection lend a new meaning to "art appreciation" and make each page of Heart to Heart an exciting discovery.

Join such poets as Jane Yolen, Nancy Willard, X. J. Kennedy, Naomi Shihab Nye, David Mura, and Angela Johnson as they reveal a personal, heartfelt response to works by Thomas Hart Benton, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Grandma Moses, Faith Ringgold, Man Ray, Georgia O'Keeffe, and many others.

Whether the poems are playful, challenging, tender, mocking, humorous, sad, or sensual, each work of art, seen through the eyes of a poet, allows readers to look at the world with new insight.