Skip to main content

Ekphrastic Poetry Writing

I had a neat experience last weekend in a workshop about writing ekphrastic poetry.

So just what is that?

Ekphrassis, the Greek root (a verb), means 'to describe'.  So, it is poetry written that is inspired by a different type/piece of art work which is described in the poem.  The description doesn't have to be the full poem, but is helpful to provide the reader a way of imagining what the author is writing about or even identify it when seen.

First step:  Choose an inspiration piece based on how you connect with it and vice versa.

Second step:  Look at and study the inspiration piece...take notes.  What I had to do was to look more deeply than I normally would at the subject piece I chose.  What were its colors?  What were the shapes in it and what did they remind me of?  Was there a story already there?  What did the artist say about his/her work in the label?  What was the ambiance in the piece?  Did a stare from one of the characters in the piece evoke something in me?  If so, what was it?  Answering these and other questions help you write the poem by providing reference points.

Third step:  Now, connect the dots...start writing and draft your poem.

Fourth step:  Read the draft, revise it, and re-read...repeating until satisfied.

Voila!

For me, it has been a long time since I've done any writing, but I was pleased with the result and will do this type of writing again.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fabric Basket - Pretty Easy

This basket was made in Jane Hall's half-day course at IQF 2014.  The greatest amount of time involved in making it--was cutting and sewing the strips together.  Otherwise, it went together easily and quickly (3 hours). These baskets are a great holiday gifting idea that you can match to family and friends' home decoration color schemes.  They're fun and useful besides.

Highjacked Blog Photo

My profile photo was highjacked ! For those of you who are blogging, be wary. There are some unscrupulous folks out there who may be using or about to use a photo(s) you've uploaded to an online photo-hosting site. At the time I created a blog, having a URL for a photo uploaded online was the only way to insert a photo in your profile or to create a custom header. There had been no problems for a long while. This morning, however, I did a Google image search for my name and found my photo linked to a totally different blog than my own! It is possible I didn't mark my file with the online photo-hosting site as private, but I didn't expect this to happen. I don't know whether marking it private would have actually averted the situation, but I'm not waiting to find out. I eliminated my membership to that online photo-hosting service today and caution anyone to be careful with uploading images to the internet . If you read the terms of agreement at many sites, you'...

What about the Hundertwasser look?

The Hundertwasser look is more recent. Do you like the direction this piece is headed?