Up on the top floor of MIMA, there is a shiny white room full of display archive cabinets, where a gorgeous collection of contemporary ceramics sit quietly behind glass. Delicate, paper-thin bowls and substantial stoneware vases, crazy spouts and glazed sculptures – and a flat screen spinning images of the wonderful vessels you can see, but not touch.

Our first poet-in-residence at MIMA this year is Kirsten Luckins, and it’s her task to create digital poems responding to the ceramics collection. Work has begun, with a hands-on visit under the watchful care of curators Helen Welford and Danielle Ash.

“It was spell-binding to actually handle so many beautiful pots. I’ve always loved the sensation of holding turned ceramics, especially anything with a pot-bellied kind of shape – it’s so satisfying to feel the shape and heft in your hands, and to think about the hands that made it in the first place. I really think you can sense the attention of the maker in the balance of the pot.

I was allowed to handle pieces by Edmund de Waal, Walter Keeler, Marianne de Trey, Waistel Cooper, Reginald Fairfax Wells, Annette Fuchs, Deirdre Burnett, Betty Blandino and Rupert Spira. They all had their own character and beauty. I was piqued by the heaviness of the Fairfax Wells vase, it seemed ironic when the potter was an aviator and aeroplane designer – he didn’t quite manage enough lift! In contrast, the Fuchs ‘tazza’ was incredibly light and balanced, where Burnett’s porcelain bowl was just like a scorched egg-shell. And of course I had to see Spira’s enormous, radio-dish-like ‘Poem Bowl’, which took two people to lift!

I’m writing 4 poems in total, responding to the Spira bowl, the Fuchs ‘tazza’, the Burnett bowl, and a gourd-like angled-neck vase by Betty Blandino (this last one was so gorgeous I found myself talking to it like I talk to seedlings, quite involuntarily!) I spent some time sketching the pieces, to get a feel for them. I had some idea I might make a hand-drawn animation for my final digital work, but it’s more likely I’ll stick to kinetic typography”.

The poems will be screened in the ceramics room, premiering at MIMA’s Art Social on 20th June but before then – if you’d like to write some poetry inspired by the shapes, techniques, characters and stories of our favourite pots and vases, Kirsten is running a free Pottery Poetry workshop in the ceramics gallery on Thursday 2nd May, 10.30-12.30. Reserve your place here