EKPHRASIS -- EKPHRASTATIC -- Poems & Paintings, Poets & Painters

responding to works of art through poetry:

 NOUN-VERB-NOUN – identify nouns, verbs, and nouns in 3 columns and begin to mix and match new imagery as a result of various combinations (first taught to me by Evan Plummer)

 GETTING TO THE ESSENCE – write 24 words in response to a work of art, then reduce it to 12, 6, 3 and finally 1 word as the essential “essence” of the work (first taught to me by Jenn Morea)

 3 WORDS ONLY – on small post it notes, respond by describing, analyzing, interpreting works, but only write 3 words per post it note – then arrange/rearrange post it notes into a poem

 JUST OUTSIDE THE FRAME… -- imagine what is “just outside the frame/image” – what do you see, hear, imagine, remember, dream, wonder about?

 JUST BEFORE/AFTER…what happened just before or just after the narrative in the art work?

 FIRST PERSON MONOLOGUES – pick a person or object in the work of art and speak from their perspective/voice

 WHAT YOU DON’T SEE IS…/WHAT YOU DON’T HEAR IS…/WHAT YOU DON’T REMEMBER IS…

 QUESTIONS TO…the object, person, landscape

 I AM…place yourself inside the work and become an object or landscape, etc. What do you see/experience/feel/remember?

 ___________IS___________________ -- pick an object/person/landscape and compare it to something else

 LETTER LIMITS – write about what you see/hear/think/feel only using words that begin with certain letters of the alphabet

 EPISTLE/ODE TO AN OBJECT/SUBJECT WITHIN THE WORK – directly address an object, person, etc. through a poem or ode praising that thing/person

 LIST POEMS
o TEN THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER ABOUT…
o TEN QUESTIONS FOR…
o TEN THINGS I HATE/LOVE ABOUT…
o TEN SOUNDS…
o TEN VERBS…

 IN THIS MOMENT… try to capture a single moment in the work of art – expand – and choose another moment – expand

 WHAT IF… what does this work of art make you wonder – start with a “what if” question about the object, person, etc. and keep asking

 HAIKU-or-LUNE-AS-REFLECTION – write a haiku (5-7-5 syllables, 3 lines) or lune (3-5-3 words peron line, 3 line poem) about what you see/experience

 FIVE TITLES AS A POEM – come up with at least 5 different titles for the work of art

 I KEEP DREAMING OF…-- imagine that this work of art is causing you to dream – what is happening in this dream?

EKPRHASTIC POETRY --http://valerie6.myweb.uga.edu/ekphrasticpoetry.html
FROM POETS.ORG: The Shield of Achilles by W. H. Auden
The Painting by Jon Balaban
War Photograph by Kate Daniels
The Family Photograph by Vona Groarke
Museum Guard by David Hernandez
The Mad Potter by John Hollander
Messieur Degas Teaches Art and Science at Durfy Intermediate School, Detroit 1942 by Philip Levine
Ode to a Grecian Urn by John Keats
Die Muhle Brennt—Richard by Richard Matthews
Photograph of People Dancing in France by Leslie Adrienne Miller
Why knowing is (& Matisse's Woman with a Hat) by Martha Ronk
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams
Stealing The Scream by Monica Youn
Joseph Cornell, with Box by Michael Dumanis
QUESTIONS to consider when writing in response to a work of art: (from http://wwwf.countryday.net/FacStf/us/hammondk/Ekprasis/Default.htm)
• What's the perspective of the poem? Does the poet "enter" the painting and join its world? Does he/she become a figure in that depiction? Is the poet a spectator? Participant? Art critic?
• What part of the art work has inspired the sentiment? Is the poet sympathetic? Compassionate?
• To what is the poet responding: the subject? the technique? the history? the artist?
• Does the poet make mention of the time difference between when he/she writes and when the work was created?
• What special language does the poet employ to deal with the art work?
• Is the "point" of the poem the same as that of the art work?
ANOTHER GREAT SOURCE FOR EKPHRASTIC POETRY:
http://www.dwpoet.com/poetassign.html “ekphrastic excursions” -- David Wright

ekphrasis --
 give voice to the work of art by entering its world
 praise the work of art by examining what you learn from it, why you need it
 examine a personal issue by zoning in on a specific feeling/issue raised in the work of art
 examine a social/historical issue by zoning in on the work of arts’ context/intent