Stretch With Ekphrastic Poetry and Writing

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By Janie Reinart


It's time to “work out” your writing muscles. Take a deep cleansing breath and stretch! 

Today, I invite you to bring the visual arts and creative writing together. 

From the Greek meaning to describe, ekphrastic poetry or writing uses a painting or work of art as the jumping off point for entering into that work of art and creating something new in our response.

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An example is John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn where the figures are in motion but frozen in time.

             What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
            What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
               What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

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Don McLean's hit song Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) is another example of using paintings and Van Gogh's life to create music.

Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze, 

Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.

One of my favorite authors, Tracy Chevalier, wrote a story using the painting of the Dutch painter Vermeer as her jumping off point, Girl with a Pearl Earring.

In an interview, Tracy says," In the painting the girl’s clothes are very plain compared to other Vermeer ladies, and yet the pearl is clearly luxurious. I was fascinated by that contrast, and it seemed to me that the pearl was not hers. At the same time, I also felt she knew Vermeer well, as her gaze is very direct and knowing. So I thought, "She knows him, she’s close to him, but she’s not well off. Who is she?" His servant. It just seemed right."

I had the opportunity to participate in a project partnering works of fine art with poetry called Silver Apples of the Moon.  Each participant juxtaposed a favorite poem with a piece of visual art and then explained how it enriched our lives and touched us in a personal way.

The poem I chose was When Someone Deeply Listens to You by my friend, John Fox. The painting,The Red Kerchief by Claude Monet was at the Cleveland Museum of Art. 

Here is an excerpt from my essay, The Deep Color of Love, dedicated to my friend and colleague, Jane Clark. 

Silence frames this fleeting moment like the delicate lace curtains painted by Monet. Listen. Just listen. Loneliness glances out the window of a bare nursing home room...

I search her face for signs of her old self. There is blurriness there-like Monet's sketchy brush strokes. She is ensnared in her body, frozen, just looking back at me... 

As the red cape in the picture draws my attention, so my eyes are drawn to my friend's right hand. It is the only part of her body that she can move now. 

Her fingernails painted a deep red-the color of passionate living, of love, of life-blood-are her last act of defiance against her brain tumor...

We share three precious hours in that room...Her death a few days later leaves me staring, frozen in grief... Her memory " is now at home within." 

Share your creations with us in the comments. Mention what work of visual art was your inspiration.