Sunday, April 15, 2012

WordParty Poetry Challenge - Writing Prompt #15


Day 15

Ekphrasis Poetry
by Jenn Barone

Go to an art gallery, flip through an art book or magazine and write about an image that intrigues you.


Here's some examples:


Don’t Let That Horse ...

BY LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI
Don’t let that horse
                              eat that violin


    cried Chagall’s mother


                                     But he   
                      kept right on
                                     painting


And became famous


And kept on painting
                              The Horse With Violin In Mouth


And when he finally finished it
he jumped up upon the horse
                                        and rode away   
          waving the violin


And then with a low bow gave it
to the first naked nude he ran across


And there were no strings   
                                     attached

Hands

BY ROBINSON JEFFERS
Inside a cave in a narrow canyon near Tassajara
The vault of rock is painted with hands,
A multitude of hands in the twilight, a cloud of men’s palms, no more,
No other picture. There’s no one to say
Whether the brown shy quiet people who are dead intended
Religion or magic, or made their tracings
In the idleness of art; but over the division of years these careful
Signs-manual are now like a sealed message   
Saying: “Look: we also were human; we had hands, not paws. All hail
You people with the cleverer hands, our supplanters
In the beautiful country; enjoy her a season, her beauty, and come down
And be supplanted; for you also are human.”