Ekphrastic Haiku

Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights

Callipygian
perfect canvas to display
aria from hell

Trish Hopkinson shared the submission call for this ekphrasis anthology. A friend shared a list of out-dated words we should bring back to our vocabulary and callipygian was one of the words. Of course I had to turn it into a poem. And yes, another “haiku” or really senryu; but since this month has started, I have made 5 submissions and they do include other poetic forms. Since Monday has rolled around again, and I’m trying to write a blog a week and I couldn’t think of anything else to compose, I decided to play with a new, old word.

If you want to hear how the composition is played, check out this article.

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Ekphrasis – Found Poem

NaPoWriMo Prompt day 24 – Today, I challenge you to write a poem of ekphrasis — that is, a poem inspired by a work of art. But I’d also like to challenge you to base your poem on a very particular kind of art – the marginalia of medieval manuscripts. Here you’ll find some characteristic images of rabbits hunting wolves, people sitting on nests of eggs, dogs studiously reading books, and birds wearing snail shells. What can I say? It must have gotten quite boring copying out manuscripts all day, so the monks made their own fun. Hopefully, the detritus of their daydreams will inspire you as well!

Welcome back to day 24 of NaPoWriMo. I went off on my own daydream or maybe nightmare. About a week ago, Shawn posted the above picture with a poem to his Facebook page. Once again, I’m borrowing without permission. 😉 Even though I knew the image on the left was a flower, my mind saw peeling skin after a sunburn. Shawn thought I was crazy, but I couldn’t help it. I’ve had bad burns with huge chunks of skin peeling off. The way the petals burst open looks like peeled skin under magnification to me. So today I went on a slightly sideways journey and wrote a haiga for my vision of the photo. Sorry, Shawn, I see what I see.

NaPoWriMo 2016 Day 6

Paul Cezanne painting website

Fruit Basket

Gloopity-Glopity
Paul Cezanne painting fruit
Basket over flowing
Spills onto cloth

Ekphrastic poetry
Cinematographic
Words used to paint picture
Artisan’s troth

Why did I chose to write about a basket of fruit? I combined the napowrimo prompt with today’s Writer’s Digest prompt. I picked Paul Cezanne because I also want to promote the Half New Year anthology published by Silver Birch Press 2014.

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Today, I challenge you to write a poem about food. This could be a poem about a particular food, or about your relationship to food in general. Or it could simply be a poem relating an incident that involves food, like David Ignatow’s “The Bagel”. Still not convinced? Perhaps these thirteen food poems will give you some inspiration. Happy writing!

NaPoWriMo Day 22

Spring Colors

Orange
Petals caress
Blue sky – stretch out in praise.
Springtime flowers bask in sunshine
Yellow

Artist Gail Goepfert. Sulphur Cosmos “friendship flowers”

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And now for (as always, optional) prompt! Today is Earth Day, so I would like to challenge you to write a “pastoral” poem. Traditionally, pastoral poems involved various shepherdesses and shepherds talking about love and fields, but yours can really just be a poem that engages with nature. One great way of going about this is simply to take a look outside your window, or take a walk around a local park. What’s happening in the yard and the trees? What’s blooming and what’s taking flight?

Taking flight around here? My sanity. Real life is rather chaotic at the moment. But never fear Rattle Magazine has an ekphrasis challenge and the last one was about flowers. My entry did not win. Last Saturday Rattle posted the Artist’s choice(here). This Saturday they will post the editor’s choice.

Hopefully things will settle down here soon. In the meantime, Rachael is raising money to feed hungry children. Check out the fundraiser here and please consider a donation. Thank you!

Exotic Art Show

Big crowd at exotic show

Exotic art show
Standing outside Alwun House
to see exhibit

I do not do crowds. Standing in line, waiting to get in, I kept telling Shawn, The things I do for you. He replied, What about all the things I go to for you?

Name one? Well… you just get published. Exactly I’m an introverted writer, hiding behind my keyboard. What about the art reading?

YES! I have never been more relieved to get a rejection letter. My ekphrasis poem for the Phoenix Art Museum will not be in the Four Chambers anthology. At this point with everything Shawn and the girls have going on in February and the first part of March, I don’t know how we’d make First Friday on March 6th.

Phoenix
Metropolis
Sprawls across the valley
Urban landscape dotting desert
Ersatz

American Landscape

Artist/Maker:
Miklos Suba
American, 1860 – 1944
Title:
American Landscape
Photo Credit – Phoenix eMuseum

And I thought I was clever submitting an American cinquain for a painting titled American Landscape. Oh well, I don’t have to worry about passing out in front of a crowd of people trying to perform my poem now.