ekphrastic poetry | Reflections on the Teche

Posts Tagged ‘ekphrastic poetry’

NPM26: Day 4: Lazarus

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged #EthicalELA, #poemsofpresence, ekphrastic poetry, Good Friday, Lazarus on April 4, 2026| 3 Comments »

Lazarus

Gestures weave
strips of burial cloth
cross-hatching
of sounds
violent and soothing
like a balm
on the day of death.

Jesus wept.

Jesus weeps with me
in joy and sorrow,
frustration and calm.

Our cries do not
go unnoticed.
We tear off
the garment
binding us to darkness,
enter into the Easter
of light eternal.

Margaret Simon, draft

At Ethical ELA, Melissa Heaton prompted us to write an ekphrastic poem, a poem about art. I turned to my father’s illustration of Lazarus. This drawing was in his folder of bible study material. His usual style was pointillism. This drawing, to me, is striking with its wild gestures.

Yesterday, for Good Friday, I led a morning meditation. My friend Carolyn played her singing bowls while the lawn mowers roared outside. At first I was irritated by this invasion, but as I wrote, I found that the juxtaposition of sounds was the point.

Carolyn plays the singing bowls in the sanctuary.

The Progressive Poem is with Donna Smith at Mainely Write.

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Poetry Friday: Sunrise Impression

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged ekphrastic poetry, Maureen McLane, Teach this Poem on January 16, 2026| 20 Comments »

Poetry Friday is with Jan at Bookseed Studio.

Even though I’m not teaching daily, I still subscribe to Teach This Poem. This week I used the lesson to prompt my own writing. The model poem was Ok, Let’s Go by Maureen McLane and included a painting by Claude Monet, “Impression, Sunrise.” I usually write as the sun is rising, so the artwork echoed for me the sun rising over the bayou. I also used two of the words from my Wordle guess.

Dawn School

After Maureen McLane

Dawn school
begins without me
as it settles sun rays
upon still water.

Let’s be here
where the teachers
are cypress knees
and squawking herons.

Sunrise impression
is a silhouette hovering
over tainted tin
of a resting Joe boat

Waiting to mark me present.

Margaret Simon, draft

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Bleeding Hearts

Posted in Photography, Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged #poemsofpresence, #smallpoems, ekphrastic poetry, Georgia Heard, shadorma, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on May 14, 2025| 7 Comments »

This beautiful bleeding heart vine was a small single branch when I took it inside for the winter. Last summer it didn’t bloom, but I saved it anyway. I’m learning this about gardening; As long as you see green, don’t give up on a plant. I didn’t give up, but I also didn’t have much hope. And now look! Not only is it thriving, it’s blooming. The blossoms seem to be hiding shamefully under the big leaves.

Google told me the symbolism of the bleeding heart flower is compassion. I think about the simple compassion I gave to this plant. It wasn’t difficult. Compassion should not be hard to give to others. I think it should come naturally.

Write a small poem inspired by the bleeding heart flower. Where are you needing compassion? How is your heart bleeding today?

You Belong

You belong
among white flowers
where stillness
grows heartwings
holding you in compassion,
acceptance, and love.

Margaret Simon, draft

My poem today is prompted by Georgia Heard’s calendar “Where you belong” and is written in the Shadorma form (3, 5, 3, 3, 7, 5)

Write a small poem in the comments and give encouraging feedback to other writers.

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: L’Éclipse

Posted in Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged eclipse, ekphrastic poetry, Melissa Bonin on April 10, 2024| 2 Comments »

This painting by my friend, artist Melissa Bonin, was exhibited at the Acadian World Congress in 2019 in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. When Melissa posted this photo of her art on Instagram, I was inspired to ask permission for our ekphrastic poetry this week.

Did you experience the eclipse? The experience was exciting for everyone. Although there were clouds and rain, a few times the sun peeked out and we were able to view it. My students were fascinated.

Every day we
Come closer to
Learning our lesson.
I stand in awe
Pretending to feel
Safe on our fragile
Earth.
Margaret Simon, draft

Please write a small poem in the comments. Encourage other writers with your responses.

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Abstract Art

Posted in Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged abstract art, Acadiana Center for the Arts, ekphrastic poetry on February 21, 2024| 8 Comments »

Yesterday afternoon I went to a workshop at the Acadiana Center for the Arts led by my mentor and friend Darrell Bourque. In the large gallery space was the show In Medias Res: How One Story Becomes Another, a collection of paintings from his collection accompanied by the poems he wrote to them. Darrell first introduced me to eckphrastic poetry years ago. This piece of painted canvas was among a pile of canvases in a writing station within the gallery.

The instructions read “Mystory: Turn no to yes”.

I love how the smashing of my and story looks like the word mystery. What mystery is hiding your true story? What story in your life turned a no into a yes?

During the workshop, I received an enticing text invitation to an Argentinian dinner complete with tango lessons. I said yes without even asking my husband. I knew yes would be his answer, too.

Today
we imagine
an eager sunrise
spinning a new story
Tango
daily elfchen, Margaret Simon

What mystery/mystory do you have waiting to expose? What emotions does the abstract painting stir for you? Please leave a small poem in the comments. Remember to write encouraging responses to other writers.

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Poetry Friday: Illuminate

Posted in Poetry Friday, Spiritual Growth, tagged ekphrastic poetry, Illuminate, John Gibson, pointillism, winter solstice on December 22, 2023| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Jone Rush MacCulloch.

Winter solstice is a day to look forward to, the ending of a school semester, the joy of decorating for Christmas, and our baby JuneBug’s birthday. And yet, almost as soon as I get home from school, the sky darkens and the world feels hushed and harsh and cold. Life is full of these bittersweet moments.

In 2013, I published a book with my poems and my father’s art, Illuminate. (Still available on Amazon.) I wrote poems for each of my father’s Christmas cards. He had done them for 10 years. It was also the year of his 80th birthday. On Novemeber 11th this year, he would have been 90. I miss him everyday. At this time of year, his presence is near as I thumb through his yearly cards and place one of his drawings on my wall. Art has become his legacy.

The Star Still Leads

The light shines in the darkness, and darkness did not overcome it.

Wise men traveled a great distance
with a will
strong enough to carry them
over hills and dunes,
through nights of wind,
storms, and cold.
All in search of a person.

We travel a great distance
recorded in scrapbooks,
dated photographs,
no east, no south,
west, or north,
but names, people we love,
people who sustain us in hope.

We are revealed to God,
our calloused hands
curled in prayer,
warmed by fervent asking
for relationship, for strength,
for understanding.
Asking for a star.
Margaret Simon, Illuminate, 2013

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NPM 23 Day 9: Roseate Spoonbills Revision

Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged ekphrastic poetry, Gary Meyers photography, Louisiana birds, roseate spoonbills on April 9, 2023| 2 Comments »

Happy Easter! I gave myself permission to not post today, to take a day off after writing 31 Slices of Life in March and 7 poems-a-day, but inspiration comes as inspiration will. On Facebook, I was tagged by a friend who knows I love birds, Louisiana wildlife, and photography. This photo by Gary Meyers is an amazing photo of roseate spoonbills in flight. I remembered that I wrote a poem once about the bird. One of the ideas Molly and I had for our poetry project was to revise an old poem, so what better exercise to do when I don’t want to write. I borrowed the photo and created a Canva to include the poem.

The Progressive Poem is with my friend, Inkling, best librarian poet I know, Linda Mitchell. Hope to this link to see her Easter bunny gift of a line.

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Poetry Friday: Shattered (An Ekphrasis)

Posted in Photography, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #Poetrypals, #story, ekphrastic poetry, February Poetry Project, Molly Hogan on February 24, 2023| 17 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Tabatha at
The Opposite of Indifference.

I have been off this week and joyfully participating in two writing challenges. I truly wish I could do this every day. Writing to prompts makes my creative juices flow. If I write a poem each day, I feel a certain satisfaction that I’ve accomplished something.

This week the Poetry Sisters challenge was to write an ekphrastic poem, which is a poem written to art. Their theme this year is transformation. In the February Project with Laura Shovan, Molly Hogan used photographs of abandoned buildings to prompt us to think about their story. I went to a mysterious place with this image.

I’ve always enjoyed writing about a mystery. In high school, I had a short story published in the school’s literary journal about a portrait in an abandoned house that ended with a question, a mystery. Many in the Facebook group wanted to know more. Mystery is like that. We want to know. I recently heard on a podcast “surrender to the mystery.” I believe that we don’t know all the answers, and we are not supposed to. So let this poem sit with you in all its unknown.

Shattered

She left the curtains
hanging,
the window open,
the cat in the yard.
She left when the air
was warm and damp
fearing her shame
would shatter her dream.
Margaret Simon, draft

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Poetry Friday: Cascade Golden Morning

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #Poetrypals, cascade poem, ekphrastic poetry, Molly Hogan on January 27, 2023| 20 Comments »

This month’s #poetrypals challenge was a new form to me: the cascade poem. I was mesmerized by Molly Hogan’s Slice of Life post on Tuesday. She posted amazing photos of a beach in Maine at sunrise on a very cold morning. I borrowed some words from her post to create a cascade poem about this photo by Molly.

Cascade Golden Morning

Cold. Cold. Single digit cold.
Walking the rhythm of the morning,
Day breaks to molten gold.

Experience moves me. Bold
ripples through me, lifts me.
Cold. Cold. Single digit cold.

Still lost in glory dawning,
toes throb in rebuke,
Walking the rhythm of the morning.

Miniature forests of fairies hold
a treasure chest of sparkling jewels.
Day breaks to molten gold.
Margaret Simon, with words from Molly Hogan

Find more Cascade poems at these poetry blog sites: Molly, Heidi, Mary Lee, Laura, and Michelle.

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Poetry Friday: Ekphrasis

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged ekphrasis, ekphrastic poetry, Georgia O'Keefe, Inklings on August 5, 2021| 17 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading.

My writing group is here this week with a new name and a new challenge. Formerly, the Sunday Swaggers, we are now the Inklings. Catherine Flynn challenged us this month to write an Ekphrastic Poem.

From the Poetry Foundation:

Ekphrasis

“Description” in Greek. An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.

A few weeks ago I was participating in #WriteOut, a virtual writing marathon from the National Writing Project. On this visit, we were in San Antonio, Tx. One of the prompts was a work of art by Georgia O’Keefe that is housed at the McNay Art Museum.

Evening Star V by Georgia O’Keefe, from the McNay Art Museum

Evening Star

Texas sky
blooms
into star-gaze
red glare haze
across blue waves–

And there–
a point of light
opens a minor C–
insignificant note
like a dust-speck
glistening then gone.
Margaret Simon, draft

To see more Inkling ekphrasis:

Molly
Linda
Heidi
Catherine

For #TheSealyChallenge, I have read 5 poetry books. This week I wrote blog posts about Before the Ever After, a verse novel by Jacqueline Woodson, and Ilya Kaminsky’s Deaf Republic, a totally different novel in verse. I also blogged about The Bridge Between Us, a collection of poems about teaching through the Covid-19 pandemic. I’ve read Robert Bly’s Morning Poems and Naomi Shihab Nye’s Cast Away, but haven’t blogged about them yet. I am enjoying this challenge. It’s making me pick up poetry books that I have had on my shelves and never read through. I only heard about this challenge this year, but it’s been around for a few years. Is anyone else doing it? How are you handling and processing?

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