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How To Write an Ekphrastic Poem — About an Artwork
Ekphrasis is not about just describing, it’s about “seeing” in a different way
The painting, the sculpture, the vase — they’re often in a museum or gallery, and they’re often cordoned off so you can’t get close. You may be surrounded by dozens of others, or able to sit alone on a seat and gaze. But for artworks that stir us in some way, the poets among us feel the urge to write a poem.
An ekphrastic poem is a response to the artwork, but not just how you feel about it. In fact, those often make the worst kinds of poems. Those feelings come from mind and heart and can be mostly subconscious. In trying to capture your feelings, you can end up with clichés and blandness.
What’s worse and also ineffective is to simply describe the artwork. Certainly there will be descriptive elements to use, but why describe something than anyone can Google and look at for themselves? You have to ask what more you can bring to it.
So how do you approach this kind of poem? From an angle, as if you are looking at the artwork sideways, trying to catch it in flight, or seeing into its layers. There are lots of possibilities which can take you either close to art or wing you far away. It’s the poem that eventuates that counts.
