Ekphrastic

Ekphrastic

Can a poem reach inside the foggy wet and gray,
Pull from a fractured, mirrored surface
The slippery strands of truth,
And lay it bare, gasping like a fish
Gutted in sunshine?
Or can it merely skirt the edges
Sidling ’round it, fingers trailing the tough-barked skin
Of memory, gnawing through pebbles,
Ice-cracked, scoured smooth, exhausted,
Unroughened edges made beautiful by time?

— Holly Jahangiri (April 5, 2023)

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Ekphrastic poems are poets’ responses to art. But in this post, which came first – the poem, or the art? Does it matter? In fact, I used Midjourney AI to generate images that visually “describe” the ideas expressed in the poem.

Today’s Poets

Mari Evans

– an activist for prison reform who opposed capital punishment. Evans was involved in her community, volunteering in schools and with youth organizations. Her work is associated with the Black Arts Movement and her writing, which often featured African American women, was known for its honest intensity. Read more here.

Black ThenPoem: “I Am a Black Woman” by Poet, Writer Mari Evans – Black Then

Mary Ann Evans (aka George Eliot) – “Although female authors were published under their own names during her lifetime, she wanted to escape the stereotype of women’s writing being limited to lighthearted romances or other lighter fare not to be taken very seriously. She also wanted to have her fiction judged separately from her already extensive and widely known work as a translator, editor, and critic. Another factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny, thus avoiding the scandal that would have arisen because of her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes.” Read more here.

Famous Poems of George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) | List of George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) Poems (poetandpoem.com)

April is National Poetry Month. This year marks its 27th year. NaPoWriMo – 30 days of writing poems – is poets’ answer to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

This coincides with the A to Z Blogging Challenge, now celebrating its 13th anniversary. Some participants choose a theme; others wing it. Doesn’t matter! The real challenge is to build a practice of writing daily. I think I stuck with it…once. There’s still time to sign up – registration ends April 9. You can see the list of participants – I’m sure they’d love it if you’d visit and comment on their blogs.

This month, my goal is to:

1. Write a poem a day and share it – uncurated – here; and
2. Highlight some poets you may be unfamiliar with.

I encourage you to click the links to read about them and their work. I plan to choose a diverse array of classical and contemporary poets – indigenous poets, Black poets, women poets, LGBTQ poets – that challenge us to see the world differently while also tapping into universal themes and emotions.

Remember, too, that comments and conversation are always welcome here. (Spammers, on the other hand, will be tossed into the moat or mocked, so before you leave an irrelevant comment or drop a link, consider that it’s fair game!)