I’ve been neglecting this blog lately. Mostly because I’ve been creative elsewhere. A few weeks ago I started attending an online poetry class that focuses on ekphrastic poetry. Yup, I said ekphrastic. There’s a long version and a short version of what that means. The short version is that you look at a piece of art: photo, painting, sculpture, pottery, quilt, etc. and you write a poem about it. The longer version starts out that ekphrasis is a Greek word that means to explain or describe. I won’t do the full lecture, but it just means that the poet looks at a work of art and then through the poet’s poetry explains or interprets the meaning or message of the art.
So for today, I’d like to briefly share the process I follow for writing an ekphrastic poem and show you an example of a work in progress. I should point out that the class I am taking is a generative class, that is the point is to generate a first draft that can be refined later. The poem I’m sharing below is one of those drafts and has not been edited as a result of the workshop we have each week on our draft poems.
The process is:
- Look at the picture and free-write about it for 15 minutes.
- Don’t think about it for a couple of days (let your subconscious process it).
- Research the art work and the artist. Often our teacher provides links to videos and essays about the artist and the art.
- Take a day off from the poem.
- Reread what you wrote after seeing the art and write a draft poem.
- Stress that it isn’t good enough (maybe that’s just me) and edit and edit.
- Email the poem to the class for the next workshop session where everyone will tell you how wonderful your poem is, but it needs just a few hundred edits … maybe that’s an exaggeration.
There are a few rules to keep in mind when writing a ekphrastic poem. First is detail — the art must be seen in the poem. Next is interpretation — the poet must convey the work and the effect it has on us. Focus is important — the poem must stay with the work of art and it’s effects on the viewer. The artist is important to the poem and should be considered. Finally is the awareness of the audience in that the reader of the poem is also a viewer of the art.
So the poem I’d like to share with you this week is based on the Käthe Kollwitz poster The Survivors. Here’s a link to the picture and some notes about it: https://www.kollwitz.de/en/the-survivors-kn-197
Here’s what I wrote during the free writing time:
———-
The Survivors By Käthe Kollwitz
Charcoal.
Charcoal, on the canvas.
Charcoal on my sleeve.
Charcoal in their heart.
Darkness of the prison.
Darkness of their heart.
Children who should see the light of day see nothing but fear.
See nothing but hate.
No food, no toy, no hope, just bony arms holding them to a ribcage
covered in charcoal soaked cloth.
The only ones who can’t see the scene are the ones who’s eyes are bound by white cloth.
Even her eye sockets are just deep pits of burnt out wood.
Wood that once sprouted leaf and flower.
Wood that once built a home.
Wood that once warmed a hearth.
Wood now corrupted.
Wood now weaponized.
Now turned to despair.
Soon to be a grave.
And here’s the draft poem:
Charcoal
after The Survivors by Käthe Kollwitz
Charcoal outlines a desiccated face
where water and hope have fled.
Hands that once held out apples to smiling children are
blackened holding a few remaining empty stomachs.
Charcoal outlines a mask
covering vision of a world gone cold.
A world where fire no longer enlightens
or transforms desire into soup.
Charcoal pulled from a cold
airless burn pile
carefully built to transform
wood into a dry fragile corpse.
Wood cut from a tree
in a forest where leaf and light
hosted birds, bees and bears.
Where the air was cleansed
and water from the ground was sent to the heights
of mountains for all to drink.
Charcoal is a surviving bird song
that once echoed by a brook.
————
Let me know what you think of the poem and what edits you might make to it.
That’s it for this week. I’ll be posting again sometime.
Andrew's View of the Week 
I liked your ekphrastic poem and also liked your notes, which were a poem in themselves! I especially liked the charcoal on your sleeve, which brought you into the poem and situation of the artwork as well. You need to show her charcoal artwork as well, though!
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Thank you! I am really liking writing ekphrastic poetry.
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It has expressed so many emotions and I could picture the scene. Well written.
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Thank you!
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Very interesting! Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks for sharing your process on this – very cool! You’ve really captured the bleak haunting quality of the art in your poem.
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I love process.
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Love the whole thing! I come from non-literary background, so am trying to figure out why the free hand notes are not considered “poem”, while the second thing does. What makes a poem?
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Intention. The freehand notes could be considered a poem as they do have poetic qualities but they aren’t intended as a poem — they’re a tool I use to find the poem. What makes a poem is a big question without a short answer, but it comes down do things like intention, distillation, language condensation, form, imagery, and other things. In the end it really comes down to what the writer is trying to do and what a read finds in the text.
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I think you did a wonderful job! And I appreciate the steps you share to write an ekphrastic poem. This is one type of poem I haven’t written, or at least not in this depth. Well done!
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I think you’d like writing ekphrastic poetry. I just love the process to make of doing it.
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Fascinating, the evolution from free-form writing to first draft. It reminds me of a sculptor, from the initial carvings into the giant block to the rough from of the the final piece. I can see why the several steps of the process lead to an even better final product. I identify with the “Taking the day off” step because it also works on the daily puzzles the New York Times offers through their app. You can’t solve them, you put them down for a while, you come back to them, and suddenly, there’s the solution right in front of you.
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It’s an overwhelming thing to write a poem in one go. I also find following the process to be the key — including the breaks. Back when I was in electronics I often troubleshooted things by going to lunch. It’s amazing how stepping back from a problem can be so helpful.
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Wow! Thank-you for sharing your draft poem as well as the process.
The word “charcoal” had not crossed my mind when looking at the picture. But I understood it immediately in your free write and appreciate the way you used it in your draft poem. That final stanza is as haunting as the eyes in the original artwork.
Looking forward to reading the next draft(s) of the poem!
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Thanks, I’ll be working more on this poem.
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